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DITCHES FOR PIG-IROX 



OUR COUNTRY 

AND 

ITS PEOPLE 

AN INTRODUCTORY GEOGRAPHIC 

READER FOR THE FOURTH 

SCHOOL YEAR 

BY 

WILL S. MONROE 

STATE NORMAL SCHODI. 
MONTCLAIK, NEW JEKSEY 

AND 

ANNA BUCKBEE 

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL 
CALIFORNIA, PA. 

ILLUSTRATED 




HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 
M C M X I 






COPYRIGHT. 1911. BY HARPER ft BROTHERS 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



^ 



o 



CI.A2!)297 8 



CONTENTS 

CHAP. PAGE 

Publishers' Note vii 

Foreword to Teachers ix 

I. Introduction to the Geography of Our 

Country i 

II. The New England Upland ii 

III. The Allegheny Plateau 28 

IV. The Coastal Plains 4y 

V. The Central Lowlands 59 

VI. The Great Lakes 68 

VII. The Western Plains 78 

VIII. The Rocky Mountain Highland ... 88 

IX. The California Valley 103 

Index J27 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

DITCHES FOR PIG-IRON Frontispiece 

MAKING BOOTS AND SHOES IN NEW ENGLAND . Facing p. 24 

PICKING COTTON IN THE SOUTH " 48 

PACKING FLOUR " 62 

AMERICAN LOCK ON THE ST. MARy'S RIVER SHIP 
CANAL CONNECTING LAKES SUPERIOR AND 

HURON " 68 

AN ILLUSTRATION OF DRY FARMING. A NEBRASKA 

WHEAT CROP BEFORE THRESHING .... " 84 

IRRIGATION IN A COLORADO PEACH ORCHARD . . " 88 

COPPER SMELTERS IN MICHIGAN " lOO 



I 



PUBLISHERS' NOTE 

WE feel certain that teachers and educators gen- 
erally will recognize the distinctive features of 
this little book. These have been well stated in the 
"Foreword to Teachers." But we wish to say a word 
about the authors and their claims to recognition in 
the preparation of a work of this kind. 

Professor Will S. Monroe is at the head of the de- 
partment of Psychology and the History of Education 
in the State Normal School at Montclair, New Jersey. 
For two years he studied geography with the late 
Professor Friedrich Ratzel at the University of Leip- 
zig, and Professor Peschel Loesche at Jena. He had 
charge of the geography classes in the training of 
teachers at the State Normal School at Westfield, 
Massachusetts, for twelve years; and he is the author 
of four successful books of travel and several educa- 
tional works. 

Miss Anna Buckbee has had wide experience as a 
teacher, superintendent of schools, and educational 
lecturer. For fifteen years she has been instructor 
of Pedagogy in the State Normal School at California, 
Pennsylvania, where she has had extended experi- 
ence in the use of the oral or Pestalozzian method in 
teaching geography to children in the primary grades. 
She is the author of The Fourth School Year (Chicago, 
1904), one of best worked-out outlines of study for 

vii 



PUBLISHERS' NOTE 

school-children of the age and grade for which "Our 
Country and Its People " has been prepared. Both 
Miss Buckbee and Professor Monroe have made iniT 
portant researches in the field of children's geographic 
interests, and the results of their studies are embodied 
in this book. 

Harper & Brothers. 



FOREWORD TO TEACHERS 



THE aim of this little volume is to introduce the 
child to the study of geography from a book. 
Teachers everywhere recognize the difficulty of mak- 
ing the right connection between the oral instruction 
of the third grade and the study of the ordinary text- 
book in the fourth or fifth school year. The more 
concrete and interesting the oral teaching of the third 
grade has been, the more keenly the children feel the 
change to the brief general statements of the primary 
geography. The authors of this book have tried to 
make this transition easier and less abrupt for the 
child by putting into his hands a volume that treats 
the topic with somewhat the fullness of oral instruc- 
tion, and, at the same time, is concise enough to serve 
as the beginning of book study. 

Another difficulty encountered by the child when he 
begins the formal study of geography with a text- 
book is due to his inability to read the book which is 
put into his hands. He does not know geographic 
words, and he meets the twofold problem of learning 
new words and getting thought from the printed page 
at the same time. By presenting the subject in the 
form of simple and interesting reading - lessons, he 
acquires a vocabulary that facilitates his progress 
when he begins the formal study of geography with a 
text-book. 

ix 



FOREWORD TO TEACHERS 

r 

"Our Country and Its People " may be used in any 
of three ways: (i) As a substitute for the first text- 
book in geography, the lessons being worked out by 
the teacher with the class by the aid of wall-maps and 
whatever illustrative apparatus she may have at hand. 
(2) It may be used as a geographical reader to supple- 
ment the more condensed treatment that primary 
geographies give of the United States. (3) It will be 
found especially helpful to those teachers who con- 
tinue to present geography by means of oral instruc- 
tion throughout the fourth school year. 

One of the authors of this book has had many years' 
experience with oral instruction in primary schools 
under the most favorable conditions. She is in entire 
accord with the advocates of the Pestalozzian method 
that oral instruction in geography may be made richer 
and fuller than by the use of any text-book which it is 
now practicable to supply to all the pupils. But oral 
instruction makes an unusually heavy demand upon 
the teacher, unless she has exceptional facilities for 
preparing the lessons. 

The real problem in oral instruction, however, is to 
keep the mass of material presented to the pupils from 
fading out of their minds; and the frequent presenta- 
tion of this difficulty by primary teachers has led to 
the preparation of this little book. The burden of 
oral instruction is really upon the child; for he is 
expected to retain what really amounts to a large book 
in geography, without any adequate means of review. 
It is idle to claim that ten-year-old pupils can prepare 
notes that will be suitable records of what they should 
retain. Furthermore, it is not fair to restrict the 
pupils to childish reproductions of lessons as their only 
permanent records. They have as good right as their 

X 



FOREWORD TO TEACHERS 

elders to review from a book any subject that they are 
required to remember. 

The authors hope that teachers will find that the 
subjects here presented are organized in such a way 
as to offer young children in readable form the essen- 
tials of what may have been taught more fully in oral 
lessons. 

The plan of the book is simple. It brings the child 
face to face at once with the fundamental ideas of 
geography — that is, the earth as the home of man. 
Structure and industries which grow from it, what Na- 
ture offers to man and the use he makes of what she 
offers, are the keynote of the story. Teachers will 
recall that genetic psychologists like Professor Alfred 
Binet in France and Professor Earl Barnes in the 
United States have pointed out that the dominant 
interests of young children are in the use of things — 
where and how things are made and what they are 
good for. Studies made by the authors of this vol- 
ume,^ on the geographic interests of school-children in 
Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, show that industrial 
activities appeal strongly to the minds of pupils in the 
primary grades. 

For these reasons it has seemed best to make the 
number of topics small and typical, selecting the 
largest units of structure and the most closely related 
industries. Names of places and political divisions 
have been introduced incidentally whenever they 
have been needed. It is assumed that in this way 

* Geographic Interests and Child Study. By Anna Buckbee. 
American Primary Teacher, December, 1896. Vol. XX. 

Die Entwickelung des sozialen Bewusstsetns der Kinder. 
By Will S. Monroe, Berlin, 1899. (The same translated into 
Swedish and Flemish.) 

xi 



FOREWORD TO TEACHERS 

much of what has been called place geography will 
become familiar to the child in the natural way, just 
as he learns the names of the streets and buildings 
in his home town when any interest attaches to them. 
We believe that this introductory acquaintance will 
make the later study of political — as well as structural 
and commercial — geography more pleasant and easy. 
As already pointed out, a stock of geographic terms 
and idioms is best acquired in the same way. These 
have been freely used in the book, sometimes with 
explanations and sometimes without. In the latter 
case, it is believed that they can be interpreted by the 
context, or that, in a few instances, the teacher may 
need to make the necessary explanation. 

The Authors. 



OUR COUNTRY 
AND ITS PEOPLE 



OUR COUNTRY 
AND ITS PEOPLE 



I 



INTRODUCTION TO THE GEOGRAPHY OF OUR 

COUNTRY 

TT may be that you have not yet begun 
* the study of geography in school, but you 
already know something about geography. 
For geography simply tells you about the 
earth and its people. You live on the earth, 
and you probably know something about 
hills, valleys, meadows, marshes, ponds, and 
streams. You and your family and the folk 
of your town form a part of the people; and 
you know something about the things that 
your part of the earth has to offer for your 
needs and comforts. 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

Geography tells about the different parts 
of the earth, and it tells us what the earth has 
to offer for the needs and comforts of man. 
But the earth does not give us all the things 
that we want ready made and at our doors. 
Wheat must be grown in the fields. It must 
be ground into flour at mills. And it must 
be baked into bread. Cotton must also be 
grown. It must be spun into yam, and then 
it must be woven into cloth before it can be 
made into clothing. Trees must be sawed 
into boards, and clay must be molded into 
bricks before our houses can be built. Coal 
must be dug from the earth and brought to 
us before we can bum it. 

Not all the things that we need are pro- 
duced in any one place. Wheat does not 
grow well in all places. Cotton can be grown 
only where the summers are long and warm. 
Trees grow well on the sides of hills and 
mountains where there is plenty of rain. And 
most of the coal and other minerals that we 
need are found in or near mountains. There- 
fore, many people are engaged in carrying 
things from one part of the earth to another. 
Others buy and store the things that are pro- 



INTRODUCTION 

duced until they are needed, and then they 
sell them again. 

So it comes about that nearly all people 
are engaged in raising something from the 
earth; in making things so that they may be 
used; in carrying things about from place to 
place, or in buying and selling things to 
others. The land where things are grown 
is called a farm or plantation. The places 
where trees are grown are called woods and 
forests. The places where coal and stone are 
taken from the earth are called mines and 
quarries. And the places where cotton and 
wool are spun into yarn and woven into cloth 
are called mills and factories. 

This book will tell you something about 
your own country and the things that it pro- 
duces. It will tell you why some things are 
grown in one part of the country and taken to 
another part to be made into useful things. 
It will tell you what each section of the United 
States can best produce; where the products 
are made over — that is, manufactured ; where 
they are carried to, and what and where the 
great centers of trade are where products are 
bought and resold. 

2 3 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

Mountain ranges and river valleys, soil and 
rainfall, the skill and the industry of man, and 
many other things determine what the surface 
of the earth may be made to yield. You will, 
therefore, want to know something about the 
geography of our country, in order to un- 
derstand why our people produce the things 
they do. 

That is why it is necessary to study about 
the structure and the climate of the United 
States. Such study will help you to under- 
stand why the cotton that is grown on the 
coastal plains of the South is taken to New 
England to be woven into cloth. 

You may already know that your country is 
very large, and that it extends from the Atlan- 
tic Ocean on the east to the Pacific Ocean on 
the west. The distance across the country 
from New York to San Francisco is about 
three thousand miles. With an express train 
it takes from five to six days to make the 
journey. From north to south our country 
extends from Canada to Mexico, a distance of 
about one thousand miles. 

Our country is crossed from north to south 
by two great highlands. Now a highland is 

4 



INTRODUCTION 

simply land that is elevated or high. It is 
made up of mountain ranges and is always 
uneven. In the western part of our country 
is the Rocky Mountain highland. It is some- 
times called the primary highland, because it is 
the chief highland in the United States. In 
the eastern part of our country is the Appa- 
lachian or secondary highland. It is not so 
broad or so high as the Rocky Mountain high- 
land, but it is better adapted for human life. 

Between these two highlands there is a 
broad stretch of land that is low and even. It 
is called the central plain of the United States. 
There are also broad plains in the southeast- 
em part of our country along the Atlantic 
Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. These lands 
are called coastal plains. 

The highlands influence our country by 
changing the direction of the winds. They 
also determine the direction of the rivers. 
They make it difficult to build railroads, and 
they increase the cost of carrying goods from 
one part of the country to another. But they 
contain most of the minerals that are useful to 
man. Our finest forests are found on the 
mountains that form the backbone of the 

S 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

highlands. And the streams that flow down 
the slopes of the highlands furnish cheap 
water-power for onr factories and mills. 

Our study will begin with the part of the 
Appalachian highland that is known as the 
New England upland. This was one of the 
first parts of our country to be settled by 
white people, and it is the part that is most 
thickly settled. Here the soil is not fertile 
enough to raise big crops, and the land is not 
level enough to use big farm machinery. But 
the rivers that flow from the highland give 
plenty of water-power. The mountains are 
not high enough to make railroad building 
difficult. Coal is easily brought from the 
Allegheny plateau, and transportation is 
cheap. Here, therefore, we find great fac- 
tories and mills where cotton and woolen 
cloth and boots and shoes are made. 

In the third lesson we will tell you some- 
thing about another part of the Appalachian 
highland that is sometimes called the Alle- 
gheny plateau. A plateau is a more or less 
even part of an elevated region. Highlands 
are generally made up of several plateaus. 

The Allegheny plateau includes parts of the 

6 



INTRODUCTION 

States of Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, 
West Virginia, and Ohio. Here we find in the 
earth two of the chief needs of man — coal to 
keep him warm, and oil and gas to give him 
light. Many of the people in this section are 
occupied in taking these products from the 
earth and distributing them where they are 
wanted. 

East and south of the Appalachian high- 
land, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of 
Mexico, are low and level tracts of land called 
coastal plains. The States of this region we 
call the South Atlantic and Gulf States. Here 
the climate is warm. The soil is fertile. 
Rainfall is abundant. Many industries might 
be carried on here. But the people of the 
coastal plains have learned that it pays to 
produce the things that are wanted and that 
cannot be raised elsewhere: and they have 
engaged in growing cotton, sugar, and rice. 

We have already mentioned the low, smooth 
region between the Appalachian and the 
Rocky Mountain highlands. This region is 
known as the central lowlands of the United 
States; and the lower parts in the upper 
Mississippi Valley are called prairies. This 

7 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

section is the "bread basket" for the people 
who toil in factories and mines or labor on 
cotton and sugar plantations. The growing 
of wheat and corn are the leading ■ industries 
of the people of the prairies. Nature has 
given them smooth fields and rich soil, and 
they have been skilful and industrious in the 
cultivation of wheat, com, and other grains. 

The Great Lakes, which are northeast of the 
prairies, are fine, natural waterways for trade 
and commerce, and they supply us with fine 
fresh-water fish. 

Between the prairies and the Rocky Moun- 
tain highland there are great stretches of 
gently sloping land that we call the Western 
plains. They are really the foot-hills of the 
Rocky Mountains. Here are the great past- 
ure lands of the United States. The westerly 
winds that come from the Pacific Ocean lose 
their moisture in crossing the high ridges of 
the Sierra Nevadas and the broad plateaus of 
the Rocky Mountain highland. The rainfall 
is so slight that grains can be grown only 
where the land can be irrigated — that is, 
where water can be taken from streams and 
caused to flow over the land. But grass 

8 



INTRODUCTION 

grows easily on the Western plains, and 
millions of cattle and sheep are raised. The 
meat is sent as food to the people of other 
parts of our country, and the hides are sent to 
New Englrmd to be made into boots and shoes. 

West of the Rocky Mountain highland, 
between the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the 
low coast range that runs along the edge of 
the land that borders the Pacific Ocean, are 
several long and narrow valleys. One of 
these is the beautiful California Valley, where 
the people grow oranges, lemons, grapes, and 
many other kinds of fruit. 

In the lessons that follow, a chapter will be 
given to each of these sections of our country, 
and you will learn how and why the people of 
the United States are engaged in producing 
the things from the earth that are needed for 
their comforts. If you understand these 
lessons, by the time you have finished the 
book you will know a good deal about the 
geography of our country and its people. 

Some Points to Remember 

I. Geography tells us about the earth and 
what it produces for our needs and comforts. 

9 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

2. Not all the things that are needed are 
produced in any one place, therefore some 
things must be made and carried to other 
parts. 

3. The structure and the climate of a coun- 
try influence the occupation of the people. 

4. The United States is so large that its 
structure and climate differ in different parts. 

5. Two highlands cross our country from 
north to south. 

6. Between these highlands are the broad 
and low central plains. 



II.~THE NEW ENGLAND UPLAND 

COTTON AND WOOLEN CLOTH AND BOOTS AND 

SHOES 

IN the first lesson you read about high- 
* lands and lowlands. Now an upland is 
simply a high tract of land. The New Eng- 
land upland, however, is not so high as most 
of the highlands in our country. It is a worn- 
out mountain range that has been slowly worn 
down until only the base of the mountains 
remain. The upland occupies the north- 
eastern part of our country. It includes the 
six small States of Maine, New Hampshire, 
Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and 
Connecticut. 

The highest part of the upland is in the 
north, where we find the White Mountains of 
New Hampshire and the Green Mountains of 
Vermont. It reaches elevations of from 1,500 
to 2,000 feet, and slopes gently to the south 

II 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

and east. There are a number of deep and 
narrow river valleys in the highland. 

The White Mountains are composed of 
irregular groups of ranges and peaks, some of 
which rise a mile or more above the level of 
the sea. The highest group is called the 
Presidential range, because its peaks have 
been named for some of the early Presidents 
of the United States. Mount Washington is 
more than a mile high; and Mount Adams, 
Mount Jefferson, Mount Madison, and Mount 
Monroe are all nearly as high. 

Many rivers take their rise in the northern 
part of the highland. The longest of these 
are the Connecticut, the Penobscot, and the 
Kennebec. They have cut channels in the 
surface of the upland, where the rocks are 
weak or soft. The main rivers of the up- 
land are fed by many smaller streams, for the 
New England States are well watered. The 
annual rainfall for this section is from thirty- 
five to fifty inches. 

The New England highland was once much 
higher and more rugged than it is to-day. 
But the sharp ridges and the high peaks were 
worn off a long time ago by the action of great 

12 



THE NEW ENGLAND UPLAND 

ice sheets, called glaciers. The highland was 
once covered by a mass of thick ice much as 
Greenland is to-day. It came from the North 
and crept slowly down the slope of the upland 
toward the ocean. As it moved along it 
scraped from the surface the loose soil and it 
plucked from their ledges many large rocks 
which it carried for miles. 

Because of some change in the climate, the 
glacier finally disappeared; but there was left 
spread over the upland the mass of gravel and 
stones that the ice sheet had brought from the 
North. Some of the large rocks had been 
rounded and. worn smooth by rubbing against 
other stones. Such glacial -worn rocks are 
called boulders, and the New England upland 
is strewn with them. 

There was also scattered over the land, as 
the ice sheet melted, fine material known as 
boulder clay or till; and on the lower edges 
of the ice sheet, where the boulder clay was 
abundant, great mounds were formed. These 
mounds, or rounded hills, are called drumlins. 
In the southern part of the New England up- 
land, near the ocean, hundreds of drumlins 
may be seen. 

13 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

Rivers were turned from their courses by 
heaps of material deposited by the melting 
glacier. In the same way many beautiful 
lakes were formed. Some of the streams thus 
changed from their courses have worn down 
soft rocks and deepened the valleys, and others 
tumble over the ledges of hard rocks that are 
not so easily worn down by the action of the 
water. Such waterfalls, before the introduc- 
tion of steam and electricity, furnished the 
power for the cotton and the woolen mills and 
the boot and shoe factories. 

The winters in the northern part of the New 
England highland are very cold, and the rivers 
are frozen over for three or four months of the 
year. The ice on the streams and lakes is 
sometimes more than two feet thick, and ice- 
cutting furnishes employment to many men 
during the winter months. Storms are fre- 
quent in New England, and the weather often 
changes several times a day. The summers 
are hot; and, as you have already been told, 
the rainfall is heavy. There is always a great 
deal of moisture in the air, but the moisture aids 
greatly in the spinning of cotton cloth, which 
is one of the chief industries of the upland. 

14 



THE NEW ENGLAND UPLAND 

The highest part of the upland being in the 
north, the short and abrupt slope is toward 
the St. Lawrence River, and the long and 
gradual slope is toward the Atlantic Ocean. 
The coastal part of the upland has sunk ; and 
at the mouth of each river, as it enters the sea, 
there is a sheltered bay that forms a harbor. 
These bays are really drowned valleys; and 
many of the small islands along the New Eng- 
land coast are half-drowned hills. 

The New England upland consists of rock 
masses of many different kinds. Some of 
these, such as granite, marble, and limestone, 
are very useful to man. Granite is very 
abundant, very hard, and very strong; and 
great quantities of granite slabs are shipped 
from the quarries near Rutland, in Vermont, 
Quincy, in Massachusetts, and Westerly, in 
Rhode Island. Vermont is famous for its 
marble, and the Connecticut Vallev for its 

' ml 

sandstone. 

The area of New England is only one- 
fortieth that of the United States, but it has 
one-fifteenth of the population of the country. 
Rhode Island and Massachusetts are the most 
thickly populated States in our country. This 

15 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

is because they contain so many factory towns, 
and because the New England upland was one 
of the parts of our country that was first 
settled by white men. 

The upland was settled nearly three hun- 
dred years ago by people who came from Eng- 
land. So long as the number of people was 
not great, they engaged in farming on small 
tracts of fertile land in the river valleys and on 
the lower parts of the upland near the sea. 

As you have already been told, most of the 
soil of New England is not very good. The 
great glacier, that we have already told you 
about, buried much of the rich surface loam, 
and it scattered gravel and boulders over the 
upland. So as the number of people grew, 
they engaged more and more in the manu- 
facture of cotton and woolen cloth and boots 
and shoes. 

In the fourth lesson you will read about the 
coastal plains of our country and the great 
plantations where cotton is grown. In the 
present lesson we will tell you something 
about the mills where the cotton is woven into 
cloth. The soil of New England is too poor 

and the summers are too short for the growth 

i6 



THE NEW ENGLAND UPLAND 

of cotton; but there are in the upland more 
than forty large towns engaged in the manu- 
facture of calico, gingham, sheeting, and other 
kinds of cotton cloth. Some of the largest 
cotton-mills in the world are at Fall River and 
Lowell, in Massachusetts, Pawtucket, in Rhode 
Island, and Manchester, in New Hampshire. 

Most of the cloth for our clothing is made 
from the hair of animals or the fiber of plants. 
By fiber is meant the thin and delicate threads. 
Cotton comes from a plant fiber. The cotton 
plant belongs to the mallow family, and it is a 
near relative of the common hollyhock that 
you may have seen growing in a yard or gar- 
den. But the fourth lesson will tell you how 
cotton is grown; and, if you would like to 
know the story of its growth at once, you may 
turn to that chapter and read about the low 
coastal plains and the great cotton plantations. 

After the cotton has been picked in the 
fields of the South, it is packed into bales and 
shipped to the mills and factories of New Eng- 
land. It is cleaned, and arranged in laps or 
rolls; for the mass of cotton in the bales is 
composed of very thin fibers from half an inch 
to an inch and a half in length. The tangled 

17 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

mass is straightened out, and the very short 
fibers are removed. This is called carding the 
cotton. The fibers are then spun into threads. 
In the spinning two or more fibers of the 
cotton are combined into a single cord. A 
pound of cotton fiber may be spun into thread 
so fine that it will reach from New York to 
Chicago, which is a distance of one thousand 
miles. 

In the olden time, cotton was spun into 
thread by hand. This was done by the 
unmarried women in families, hence our word 
spinster for unmarried or single women. But 
to-day the slender cotton fibers are drawn into 
threads on rods, called spindles, by machinery; 
and each cotton -mill in New England has 
thousands of spindles operated by machines. 
Some of the mills merely card the cotton fiber 
and spin it into thread, and send the thread to 
factories to be woven into cloth. But at some 
of the mills the carding and spinning, as well 
as the weaving, is done. 

Many years ago cotton cloth was woven by 
hand in great wooden looms. To-day the 
thread is woven into fabrics in looms that are 
operated by machinery. Threads are first 

i8 



THE NEW ENGLAND UPLAND 

placed lengthwise in the looms. These are 
crossed by other threads. The long threads 
are called the warp; and the short ones, that 
cross them, the woof or welt. The interlacing 
of the thread forms the cloth. The thread of 
the woof is passed from one side of the loom to 
the other, between the threads of the warp, by 
means of a shuttle. 

All this is done by machinery. One girl can 
attend to hundreds of spindles, where the cot- 
ton is spun into thread ; and a man can attend 
to two great looms, where the thread is woven 
into calico, gingham, and sheeting. There are 
in our country twenty-two million spindles for 
the spinning of cotton thread, and half a 
million looms for the manufacture of cotton 
cloth. 

Formerly all the cotton cloth made in our 
country came from New England; but in 
recent times some of the States of the South, 
and particularly North Carolina, have built 
cotton-mills. Fall River, in Massachusetts, 
sometimes called "the Cotton City of Ameri- 
ca," weaves great quantities of calico, ging- 
ham, and sheeting. It is located on the 
Narragansett River, near where that stream 

3 19 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

falls from the lowest part of the upland to tide- 
level ; and this gave the town great advantage 
when cotton - mills were driven entirely by 
water-power. Lowell, New Bedford, Law- 
rence, and other Massachusetts towns weave 
quantities of cotton cloth; and Pawtucket, in 
Rhode Island, and Manchester, in New Hamp- 
shire, are also important cotton towns. 

More cotton cloth is made in the United 
States than in any other country. We make 
the plainer and cheaper grades of goods, and 
we use most of the cotton cloth that we manu- 
facture. The finer and more expensive cotton 
fabrics we buy from England, France, Ger- 
many, Belgium, and Switzerland. 

There are also in New England many fac- 
tories for the manufacture of woolen cloth, 
worsted goods, and carpets. These fabrics 
are made from the hair of animals, usually 
sheep, but sometimes the hair of goats and 
alpacas is used. In a later lesson on the 
great plains of the West you will be told about 
the raising of sheep. After the wool has been 
sheared from the backs of the sheep, it is 
shipped to the factories, where it is sorted so as 
to put the different threads together. Then 

20 



THE NEW ENGLAND UPLAND 

it is washed in lye and clean water to get the 
grease out of it. The dust is blown from it, 
and it is picked over by hand to remove the 
knots. Then the fiber is spun into yarn. 

In making yarn for woolen cloth, the wool is 
simply spun into loose thread. But in making 
yam for worsteds, the wool is combed and 
twisted until the thread becomes hard. The 
cloth is then made in great looms that are very 
much like the looms used in the making of 
cotton cloth. After the cloth is woven, it is 
beaten in water and soap with wooden mallets 
or hammers that the oil and dirt may be 
gotten out. After this it is washed; and if it 
is to be colored cloth, and the yarn has not 
already been dyed, it is now dyed in the piece. 
It is washed again and stretched upon frames 
to dry. 

Again it is soaked in water and pounded 
or rolled, in order that the fibers may felt 
together. This causes the cloth to shrink 
very much, but it becomes thicker. The 
cloth is then pressed, folded, and packed, and 
is ready to be sold. You must have already 
noted that the task of making woolen is much 
greater than that of making cotton cloth, and 

2t 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

you will also remember that woolen cloth 
costs much more than cotton cloth, and that 
woolen clothes keep you much warmer in 
winter than cotton clothes. 

The chief woolen fabrics made in New Eng- 
land are woolen cloth, worsteds, and carpets. 
The yam for the woolen cloth is only slightly 
twisted, and the fibers are crossed in every 
way, so as to leave them free for felting. But 
for worsteds, the fibers of the wool are all 
laid out straight, and the threads of the yam 
are twisted until they become very hard. If 
you will compare a piece of woolen cloth with a 
piece of worsted you will notice at once the 
difference in the two kinds of fabrics. 

Massachusetts ranks first in our country in 
the manufacture of woolen cloth and worsteds, 
and third in carpet. Rhode Island ranks 
second; and considerable woolen cloth is 
made in Maine, Connecticut, and New Hamp- 
shire. The great woolen cities of New Eng- 
land are Providence, Lawrence, Pittsfield, 
Lowell, Fitchburg, and Woonsocket; and 
carpets are made at Worcester and Clinton. 
Perhaps you will want to find on a map the 
location of each of these towns, Other States 

22 



THE NEW ENGLAND UPLAND 

in our country that make woolen fabrics are 
New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. 

Boots and shoes are made in one hundred 
and fifty towns in New England; but in the 
three towns of Lynn, Brockton, and Haver- 
hill — all in Massachusetts — two-thirds of the 
shoes of our country are produced. You 
probably know that boots and shoes are made 
from the hides of animals; and in a later 
lesson on the Western plains you will read 
about the cattle that are raised for their meat 
and hides and tallow. The raw skins of 
animals are called hides ; and most of the hides 
used in the making of boots and shoes come 
from cattle. Some hides also come from 
sheep, goats, horses, kangaroos, and alligators. 

After the skins have been taken from the 
animals they must be tanned; that is, they 
must be soaked in the ground bark of hemlock 
or oak trees. Long ago it was found that the 
tanning of skins hardened them and made 
them wear well. The hides are soaked in the 
ground bark and other tanning stuff for a cou- 
ple of weeks, and then they are washed and 
dried. Tanned hides are called leather. The 
leather is again hardened by being hammered 

23 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

or rolled under heavy steel rollers. The part 
of the leather to be used for the uppers of the 
shoes is split and rubbed with oil or tallow. 

The making of the shoe begins by cutting 
the different parts from the leather, as the 
uppers, the soles, and the heels. There are a 
number of different pieces to the uppers. 
The part that fits about the ankle is called the 
large quarter. The part that covers the front 
of the foot is called the vamp. The uppers 
and soles are cut from the leather by hand by a 
cutter with a pattern and a sharp knife, and 
the heels are cut with a die or steel punch. 

The next step in the making of a shoe is to 
sew the different parts together. This was 
formerly done by hand, and it took a shoe- 
maker several days to make a pair of shoes. 
To-day it is done by sewing-machines, and a 
pair of shoes may be made in fifteen or twenty 
minutes. The various parts of the uppers are 
first sewed together, and then the soles and 
the uppers are joined by means of sewing- 
machines. Even the heels are fastened to the 
shoe by machinery; and the nails that are 
used are cut from steel wire and driven into 
the heels at the same time. The cutting of the 

24 



i 



THE NEW ENGLAND UPLAND 

parts of the shoe is done largely by men ; but 
the sewing-machines are operated by women 
and girls. One woman can sew from seven to 
eight hundred pairs of shoes a day. 

More boots and shoes are made in the 
United States than in any other country ; and 
while most of the American boots and shoes 
are made in New England, there are large 
factories in New York City, Rochester, Phila- 
delphia, Chicago, and St. Louis. We make 
so many boots and shoes that we are not only 
able to supply the needs of our own people, but 
we also sell great quantities to the people of 
the old world. 

England, Germany, and France also make 
many boots and shoes, for most people of the 
world to-day wear covering for the feet made 
of leather. This was not always so. In 
ancient Egypt, a very old country in northern 
Africa, about which you will study in geog- 
raphy, the people wore sandals made of palm 
leaves. Now a sandal is simply a sole that is 
fastened to the foot with straps. 

Indians wore moccasins made of deerskin, 
or other soft leather. In Japan and China 
shoes are still made of straw, and in Holland, 

25 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

Belgium, and some other parts of Europe, 
many of the people wear shoes that are cut 
from blocks of wood. The wooden shoes worn 
by the peasants, or common people of Europe, 
are called sabots. They keep the feet warm and 
dry, but they make a great clatter in walking. 

This finishes our story of the New England 
upland and its industries. We have not told 
you about all the things that the people of the 
New England vStates make for their needs and 
comforts, as well as for the needs and com- 
forts of others, but we have told you about 
the principal things. ■ 

Later in your course, when you study the 
geography of this section, you will learn 
about the manufacture of paper, the products 
of the forests, and the fisheries on the coast. 
For the present, it is enough that you should 
know something about the nature of the high- 
land and its chief industries, which are the 
making of cotton and woolen cloth and boots 
and shoes. 

Some Points to Remember 

I. The New England upland is a highland, 
but it is not so high as most of the other 
highlands in our country. 

26 



THE NEW ENGLAND UPLAND 

2. The highland is composed of irregular 
groups of mountain ranges and peaks. 

3. The highest peak in the upland is Mount 
Washington, which is 6,293 ^e^t above the 
level of the sea. 

4. The highest part of the upland is in the 
north, and the long slope is toward the east 
and the south. 

5. The principal rivers of New England are 
the Connecticut, the Penobscot, and the 
Kennebec. 

6. Rainfall is abundant, and lakes and 
streams are numerous. 

7. The slope of the upland and the numerous 
streams furnish cheap water-power for mills 
and factories. 

8. The weaving of cotton and woolen cloth 
and the making of boots and shoes are the 
principal occupations of the people of New 
England. 



III.— THE ALLEGHENY PLATEAU 

USEFUL minerals: coal, iron, petroleum, 

AND GAS 

A GREAT highland extends through the 
-**• eastern part of North America from the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence to South Carolina. It 
is called the Appalachian highland; and the 
New England upland, about which you read 
in the last lesson, is simply a part of this 
elevated region. In this lesson you will learn 
some things about the central part of the 
Appalachian highland and the useful minerals 
that are found in its rocky layers. 

In the eastern part of the Appalachian high- 
land we find the worn and rounded Blue Ridge 
Mountains, and in the western part the broad 
Allegheny and Cumberland plateaus. Be- 
tween the Blue Ridge Mountains and the 
plateaus there is a long and narrow depression 
that is not so elevated as the eastern ridges 

28 



THE ALLEGHENY PLATEAU 

and much lower than the western plateaus. 
This depression is called the Great Valley. 
Most of the rivers of the highland take 
their rise in the plateaus. They cross the 
Great Valley and reach the Atlantic Ocean 
through water-gaps in the Blue Ridge Moun- 
tains. 

The southern part of the Appalachian high- 
land is broader and higher than the central 
part. Here we find Mount Mitchell, the high- 
est peak in the eastern part of our country. 
In the Cumberland plateau the mountains 
contain coal and iron, and the slopes of the 
plateau are well wooded. 

But in this lesson you are to learn about 
only one division of the Appalachian highland, 
the Allegheny plateau. It includes the south- 
ern and western parts of New York, the 
western part of Pennsylvania, and parts of 
Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland. The 
average elevation of the plateau is about 
a thousand feet. On the eastern side the 
plateau slopes abruptly to the Great Valley, 
but the western slopes descend gradually to 
the prairies and the Gulf coastal plain. The 
Allegheny plateau contains rich mines of use- 

29 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

ful minerals, such as coal, iron, petroleum, 
and natural gas. 

In the early days of our country — that is, 
before canals, railroads, and steamboats had 
become common — the mining of coal was a 
very simple matter. Any one who needed it, 
in the region where it lay close to the surface, 
had only to go to the nearest outcropping 
with a pick and shovel. He broke loose what 
he needed; shoveled it into a basket, a bag, 
or a cart, and took it to his home or shop. 
There was little trade in coal in those days, 
because it was too heavy to carry long dis- 
tances by any of the means of transportation 
then in use. To - day all that is changed, 
and many people are engaged in mining 
coal and carrying it to places where it is 
needed. 

Coal is spread out in layers in the earth. 
These layers are sometimes called seams, 
sometimes veins, and sometimes simply beds 
of coal. In the United States coal occupies 
about two hundred thousand square miles. 
Now that is a very large area. It is more 
than four times the size of the State of New 
York; and two-thirds of our coal is found in 

30 



THE ALLEGHENY PLATEAU 

three States in the Allegheny plateau — Penn- 
sylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. 

The coal veins vary in thickness from a few 
inches to thirty or more feet. In many places 
they are fairly level. This makes it very 
convenient for handling the coal. In other 
places the beds lie slanting in the earth, when 
they are said to dip. The veins of hard coal 
in eastern Pennsylvania are often folded and 
twisted in such a way as to make the work of 
mining very difficult indeed. 

When layers of coal come to the surface, 
they are said to outcrop. These outcrops 
may often be seen in the bluffs along the river 
valleys and at places where the railroads have 
made cuttings. In some of the coal regions, 
however, the miners must go down as far as 
fifteen hundred feet to find the coal. 

The hardest coal is called anthracite, and is 
found mainly in eastern Pennsylvania. A 
softer coal is found along the western slopes of 
the Allegheny plateau and in the Mississippi 
Valley that is called bituminous coal. Our 
country mines nearly four times as much 
bituminous as anthracite coal. 

Coal is sometimes procured by merely un^ 

31 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

covering the beds where it is near the surface 
and taking it out somewhat as stone is quar- 
ried. This is called stripping. Sometimes 
large veins of coal lie not far below the surface. 
These are called drifts; and if the coal out- 
crops above a valley or stream, all that has to 
be done is to drive a tunnel up into the seam. 

Another kind of coal-mine is the slope. In 
this the coal veins slant downward. A tunnel 
is driven down to the vein and the coal is 
brought up to the surface. Most of the coal 
is so deep in the earth that it can only be 
reached by sinking a shaft. 

Since the days of the man with the pick and 
shovel and basket, three things have greatly 
increased the demand for coal. One is the 
increased use that is made of coal in factories, 
engines, and for heating purposes in our homes. 
Another is the improvements that have been 
made in transporting coal from the mines to 
the places where it is needed. A third is the 
invention of machines that mine and handle 
the coal cheaply. 

All these changes act one upon another in a 
sort of a circle, something after the manner of 
the story in the rhyme that tells about "The 

32 



THE ALLEGHENY PLATEAU 

House that Jack Built." The coal enables 
the mills to make iron and steel. Iron and 
steel are used to build railroads to carry coal 
to mills that will make more iron and steel to 
build more railroads. More coal must be 
mined for the new mills that make the iron 
and steel for the new railroads, and so on. 

You have already been told that most of the 
coal is taken from the mines by a shaft sunk 
into the earth. Now a shaft is much like a 
large well or a deep cellar. The sides must be 
strongly braced with timber so that they will 
not cave in. The usual size of a mine shaft 
is twelve feet by thirty. Partitions divide the 
shaft crosswise into four compartments. One 
of the compartments is used for pumping the 
water from the mine. Another is used to 
ventilate the mine — that is, to force fresh air 
■in and foul gases and bad air out. The other 
two compartments are used to take the men 
and mules and coal cars down into the mine 
and to bring them out again. 

At the foot of the shaft a straight passage 
or tunnel is driven for some distance into the 
coal vein. This is extended as the work con- 
tinues, and is called the main entry or gang- 

33 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

way. From this a side passage branches off at 
right angles. Other passages are dng, and all 
are connected with the air-passage of the main 
shaft; for at the top of the shaft is a great 
fan that sucks the foul gases and bad air from 
the passages and allows fresh air to take their 
place. It is very necessary that the miners 
should have a constant supply of good air. 

You doubtless know that under the surface 
of the earth there are always small streams of 
water. Now these streams would soon flood 
the mine if the water was not constantl}^ 
pumped to the surface. You have also read 
that one of the compartments of the mine 
shaft is for this purpose. 

Having told you something of the ventila- 
tion and the drainage of a mine, we are now 
ready to tell you of the actual work of mining 
the coal. The main entry from the bottom of 
the shaft, that we have already mentioned, is 
extended; side entries are dug; and from the 
side entries passages are cut at right angles 
running parallel with the main entry. Per- 
haps you will take a piece of paper and pencil 
and make a drawing of these entries and 
passages. Or, if you will imagine the streets 

34 



THE ALLEGHENY PLATEAU 

of an underground city, you will get some 
notion of the appearance of a coal - mine. 
Blocks or pillars of coal must be left standing 
that the roof may be held up. 

There are three ways of loosening the coal 
in the vein — by using a pick, by drilling and 
blasting, and by cutting with a machine. 
Machines that are run by electricity or com- 
pressed air cut the coal from the beds into 
great blocks as easily as you would cut a loaf 
of bread into slices with a sharp knife. 

One of the difficult problems in mining is 
how to keep the roof from falling; for the 
pillars of coal left standing are not strong 
enough to support the weight of rock above. 
Miners, therefore, put in great numbers of 
hardwood posts as supports. But, in spite of 
all the care that is taken, many miners are 
killed every year by the falling of slate and 
rock. 

Miners are often killed or injured by the 
explosive gases that are set free in mining the 
coal. These gases collect near the roof; and, 
as the miners come along with lighted lamps 
in their caps, the gas takes fire and serious 
injuries often result. Fires often take place 

4 35 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

as the result of such explosions; and other 
dangers have to be faced by the men who dig 
the coal from the mines that warms our homes 
and furnishes the power for our engines and 
factories. 

After the coal has been loosened from the 
earth by picks, blasting, or machinery, it must 
be taken to the bottom of the shaft on small 
cars that are drawn by mules ; then it is lifted 
to the surface, much as you may have seen a 
large box taken by an elevator from the 
ground floor to one of the upper stories of a 
high building. In the case of hard or anthra- 
cite coal, after it is brought from the mine it 
must be taken to a breaker to be broken up. 

After coal has been broken into pieces of 
different sizes by machinery, it is then made 
to pass through a series of sieves, which sort it 
into several sizes. These different sizes give 
the name to the different kinds of hard coal as 
we find them in the market. Some of these 
names are lump coal, egg coal, large stove coal, 
small stove coal, chestnut coal, and pea coal. 

Quantities of soft or bituminous coal mined 
in the Allegheny plateau are made into coke 
before being used as fuel. Coke is made by 

36 



THE ALLEGHENY PLATEAU 

burning soft coal in an oven. These ovens are 
made of brick and are cone-shaped inside. 
There are openings at the top to put the coal in, 
and doors at the side from which to draw the 
coke out. 

After the coal has been allowed to burn 
slowly for forty-eight hours or more, water is 
turned in to cool it off, and the coke is removed 
from the oven and shipped where it is needed. 
Most coke is used in iron and steel mills in 
melting the ore and pig-iron. It is also used 
by blacksmiths and by railroads for locomo- 
tives, and sometimes it is used in furnaces for 
heating houses. 

The use of iron by man is very old. How 
old we do not know. It is probable that the 
first iron-makers were savages who built a fire 
upon a rock that contained iron ore. When 
the fire went out, they found that the partly 
melted rock could be pounded into better- 
shaped weapons and tools than those they 
had made from stone. Somehow they learned 
that if they heated the iron-bearing rock until 
it melted it would separate from the other 
materials mixed with it. But it was not easy 
to melt it. 

37 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

Primitive men had learned that a draught 
made their fires bum better; so they piled 
broken ore and wood between high rocks, so 
that the wind might rush through. Later it 
was discovered that if limestone was put into 
the pile the impurities of the ore would stick 
to the lime and form a scum, just as happens 
when your mother boils fruit and sugar to- 
gether. 

Finally, one day, some one thought to build 
a chimney over his heap of ore. He found 
that he had a good draught without depend- 
ing upon the wind. When the melted ore was 
cooled a little, he hammered it into shape. 
Thus was completed the necessary steps in 
making iron from the ore that is found in the 
earth mixed with rocks. Iron was known in 
the time of Homer, the blind old Greek poet, 
and he lived a very long time ago. 

But you want to know about the iron and 
steel industry in your own country ; where the 
ore is found; how and where it is made into 
steel. We have already told you that the 
Allegheny plateau has many mills for making 
iron ore into steel, and the steel into steel 
plate, steel rails, locomotives, machinery, 

38 



THE ALLEGHENY PLATEAU 

and many other things that are made of 
iron. 

Pure iron is never found in the earth with- 
out being mixed with something else. Certain 
sands, gravel, and rocks contain iron and other 
minerals. If they contain considerable iron, 
we call them iron ores. Now, iron ore is found 
in nearly all parts of the earth ; but some ores 
are much richer than others. Minnesota and 
Michigan have the richest iron ores in our 
country. Alabama, Virginia, Tennessee, and 
Pennsylvania come next. And we import 
much iron ore from Cuba. 

Iron is mined much as coal is. Some of the 
ore is so near the surface that it may be loos- 
ened with steam-shovels and loaded into cars 
or boats. Some of it is blasted from the earth 
as is done with coal. Some iron-mines are 
worked as a drift ; others as a slope ; and in 
still others a shaft is sunk into the earth and 
the ore is hoisted to the surface. 

Iron ore is very heavy ; but the same is true 
of the coal and limestone that are needed for 
smelting it — that is, separating the rocky 
parts from the true iron by heating. We find, 
therefore, the iron-mills near the coal-mines. 

39 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

And since you already know that the Alle- 
gheny region is the great coal-bin of our coun- 
try, you will look for the mills in the parts of 
the plateau where there are good waterways 
and railways. Pittsburg meets these require- 
ments, and it is the great center of the iron 
and steel industries in our country; although 
you will find such mills in most parts of the 
Appalachian highland south of the New Eng- 
land upland, and particularly in the Cumber- 
land plateau. 

Now that you have learned where the ore 
comes from and where the mills are located, 
you will want to know how the iron is made 
ready for use. You have already read that the 
first process is called smelting. This is done at 
a blast-furnace. Now, a furnace is not a build- 
ing, but a huge steel cylinder, lined with fire- 
brick, and towering eighty or more feet in the 
air. At the bottom is a sort of tank called the 
hearth. Air-pipes enter just above the hearth, 
for it is the blast of air that feeds the fire and 
causes the ore to melt. 

The furnace is filled from the top with ore, 
coke, and limestone. As the mass melts, the 
impurities separate from the iron. As the 

40 



THE ALLEGHENY PLATEAU 

iron is much heavier than the impurities, it 
sinks to the bottom and is taken from the 
furnace by a door at the bottom of the hearth. 
As it leaves the furnace it is a red-hot stream. 
The Hmestone, coke ashes, and other impuri- 
ties, being much Hghter than the mass of pure 
iron, they are taken from the furnace by a 
door at the top of the hearth. 

The streams of red-hot iron are run mto 
little ditches that are filled with sand. Here 
the iron cools, and the cooled pieces are called 
pig-iron. But the pig-iron must again be 
melted and refined and made into what is 
called wrought iron or steel. Pig-iron might 
be compared to the yarn that is made from 
the raw cotton and wool that you read about 
in the lesson on the New England upland. 
You learned that the cotton yarn must be 
woven into cloth, and the cloth made into 
clothing. So the pig-iron must be worked 
over into malleable iron — that is, iron which 
can be easily hammered into different shapes 
— and steel before it can be made into tools 
and machines and rails and engines and other 
useful things. 

Many of our useful iron products are made 

41 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

from steel, a very hard kind of iron. There is 
no such thing as a steel ore. The pig-iron is 
changed into steel by being heated with a 
mixture of charcoal, or by melting it and 
driving a blast of air through it. Steel is used 
for knives, tools, rails, machines, and many 
other things; and in different parts of the 
Allegheny region there are great factories 
where all kinds of steel and iron products are 
made for the use and comfort of man. Try 
and recall all the things in your home that are 
made of iron and steel; and then make a list 
of the different uses of iron and steel in your 
town. 

Sixty years ago people used candles and 
lamps filled with lard or whale-oil to light their 
homes. But these gave so little light that it 
was not easy to read or sew in the evening; 
and cars and churches were very dimly lighted. 
And the streets of the cities and towns were 
very dark after nightfall. 

For a long time the people who lived on the 
western slopes of the Allegheny plateau had 
noticed on the surface of springs and pools of 
water a dark kind of oil ; but they used it only 
as medicine. Finally some men in Pittsburg 

42 



THE ALLEGHENY PLATEAU 

found that with a glass chimney this oil could 
be used for lighting their houses. 

As the oil had always been found on springs 
and streams of water, men finally bored holes 
in the earth and discovered great pools of oil. 
In order to reach the oil a hole has to be dug 
into the earth for a long distance. Sometimes 
men have to dig down a half-mile before they 
reach the oil-pool. 

In some wells the oil does not have to be 
pumped out. The pressure is so great that it 
flows out, much as you may have seen water 
shoot into the air in a fountain. These are 
called artesian wells. A pipe is attached to 
the top of the well to save the oil. The pipes 
run into great steel tanks that hold thousands 
of gallons. 

Sometimes the oil-tanks take fire. A burn- 
ing oil -tank is an awful spectacle. Great 
clouds of black smoke are carried into the air 
and spread over the country ; and if the burn- 
ing oil should flow down a narrow valley — as it 
sometimes does- -it causes great destruction. 

When the oil comes from the well, it is 
thick and has a dirty yellowish color. This is 
the crude oil. But such oil does not burn well 

43 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

in lamps. It must be refined. So it is taken 
from the great tanks in iron pipes to the 
refineries. One oil company has four thou- 
sand miles of oil-pipes. That is, if its oil-pipes 
were placed end to end, they would reach 
from San Francisco to New York, and from 
New Y^ork again west as far as Chicago. Some- 
times the oil is carried to the refineries in tank- 
cars. 

At the refineries, the crude oil is distilled — 
that is, the impurities are removed. The 
crude oil is heated in great boilers. The vapor 
that comes from the heating is carried through 
tubes that are kept in cold water. This causes 
the moisture in the air to collect much as damp 
air will collect on the outside of a pitcher of 
cold water that is brought into a warm room. 
The thinnest and lightest liquid collects first. 
This makes the naphtha that we use in varnish 
and for other purposes. The next thinnest is 
the gasoline that is much used to-day by 
automobiles. Then comes the benzine that 
we use for cleaning purposes. Finally there is 
condensed the kerosene that we bum in lamps. 

There remains in the boilers a thick, heavy 
mass that looks like dirty molasses. From this 

44 



THE ALLEGHENY PLATEAU 

coal-tar, machine oil, dyes for coloring cloth, 
and wax for candles and chewing-gum are made. 

Another quite wonderful mineral product 
of the Allegheny plateau is natural gas. It is 
usually found in connection with petroleum. 
Wells are drilled into the earth in much the 
same way as the oil-wells. When a reservoir 
of gas is tapped it rushes to the surface ready 
to be used in lighting streets, warming homes, 
and cooking meals. All that needs to be done 
is to pipe it to the towns where it is needed. 
Some pipes carry gas to towns that are two 
hundred and fifty miles from the wells. 

Natural gas is used chiefly for lighting and 
heating buildings. It is cheap; it gives a 
brilliant light, and it burns without smoke or 
ashes. In many homes on the Allegheny 
plateau there are no lamps or coal-bins to fill, 
and no ashes to be removed. The people who 
use natural gas simply strike a match, turn on 
the gas, and their fires are ready. 

Some Points to Remember 

1. The Allegheny plateau is in the west cen- 
tral part of the Appalachian highland. 

2. It includes the southern and western part 

45 



> 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

of New York, the western part of Pennsyl- 
vania, and parts of West Virginia, Ohio, and 
Maryland. 

3. It contains in great quantities four very 
useful mineral products — coal, iron, petro- 
leum, and natural gas. 

4. Coal is found in the earth in veins, seams, 
or beds. Most of it is mined by sinking 
shafts into the earth. 

5. The hard coal is called anthracite and the 
soft coal bituminous. 

6. Quantities of bituminous coal are used in 
the manufacture of coke. 

7. Coal is necessary for the manufacture of 
iron ore into steel and machinery, hence the 
large number of furnaces and steel-mills in 
the Allegheny plateau. 

8. Some of the largest oil-wells in our coun- 
try are found in the Allegheny plateau. 

9. Great reservoirs of natural gas are found 
in the neighborhood of petroleum. 



IV.— THE COASTAL PLAINS 

COTTON-FIELDS AND SUGAR-PLANTATIONS 

CROM New York to Texas there are low, 
^ flat plains that border the Atlantic Ocean 
and the Gulf of Mexico. They are called 
coastal plains and they contain some rich 
agricultural lands. The surface is level; the 
soil is everywhere deep; the climate is very 
moderate, and the rainfall is abundant. These 
are the conditions that favor the growth of 
cotton and sugar-cane. 

The coastal plains of our country include 
portions of the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, 
Mississippi, and Texas, and all of Florida and 
Louisiana. The higher ground between the 
Atlantic coastal plain and the Appalachian 
highland is called the Piedmont belt. It 
grows some cotton, but its chief crops are 
tobacco and com. 

More than six hundred years ago a famous 

47 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

traveler, Marco Polo by name, came home to 
Venice after a journey of twenty years in 
Asia. He wrote a book in which he told about 
the wonderful things that he had seen; and 
one of the marvels that he described was the 
growth of wool on trees. What he had really 
seen was the cotton-plant. It is no longer a 
matter of wonder, since much cloth is to-day 
made from cotton, and cotton-plantations are 
found in most warm countries. 

When our country was settled, nearly three 
hundred years ago, people had learned how to 
make cloth from the cotton-plant; and very 
early in the history of our country, it was 
found that cotton could be grown in Virginia 
and other parts of the Atlantic coastal plain. 
It was not, however, until after the invention 
of the cotton-gin and the steamboat that the 
growth of cotton became an important in- 
dustry. 

Cotton grows on small trees, bushes, vines, 
and on low plants called herbs. Tree cotton 
is found in India, but is not cultivated for the 
market. Bush cotton is also found in India, 
and is cultivated for the fiber that is used for 
making a kind of cloth called Madras and the 

48 



^m-n 




f 








THE COASTAL PLAINS 

beautiful India muslins. The cotton that is 
grown on the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains 
of our country comes from an herb. 

Two kinds of cotton are grown in our coun- 
try — sea - island cotton and upland cotton. 
Sea-island cotton is grown on the islands and 
low coastal plains of South Carolina, Georgia, 
and Florida. It produces a longer and finer 
fiber than upland cotton and is much used for 
making thread. 

Upland cotton is much more widely grown 
and is produced in large quantities on the 
Piedmont belt and the Gulf coastal plain. 
Texas produces the most. But nearly all of 
the States of the Atlantic and Gulf coastal 
plains produce large quantities of upland 
cotton. 

The seed must be sown in the spring and the 
crop gathered in the autumn. The date for 
planting varies. Near the coast it may take 
place as early as the first of March ; but in the 
upland regions of the Piedmont belt, the 
ground is not warm enough until the end of 
April. 

The preparation of the ground requires a 
great deal of work. It must first be broken 

49 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

with a plow. Then it must be worked over 
with a fine harrow. Then it must be bedded 
up into ridges about four feet apart. After all 
danger of frost has passed the seed is planted 
in the ridges by a machine that is something 
like a corn-planter. 

When the young plants get four leaves, the 
rows must be thinned, since the machine sows 
too many seed. This is done by hand by 
patient colored people. The blossoms come 
in July or August, and they are very beautiful. 
When they first appear they are cream-colored 
but they soon grow pink and red. In three or 
four days they fall off and a tiny pod appears 
where the blossom was. This pod is called 
the boll, and it continues to grow until it be- 
comes as large as a hen's egg. The boll has 
from three to six apartments or cells which 
contain seeds wrapped in the soft white downy 
substance that we call the cotton fiber or lint. 

When the seed is ripe the bolls burst open 
and the cotton stalks are covered with white 
flufi'y balls. A ripe cotton-field is a beautiful 
sight ; and if the crop is a large one, the planter, 
as the cotton farmer is called, is very happy. 
For there is much hard work for the planter 

50 



THE COASTAL PLAINS 

and his help and a good deal of anxiety. If 
there happens to be a late frost, the plants are 
killed or injured. If there happens to be a 
long season without rain, or too much rain, 
the plants do not produce good cotton. And 
then there are many plant diseases and insect 
pests that may injure the plant. 

Picking the cotton is the most interesting 
part of the work; and it is all done by hand. 
It is not hard work, and the women and the 
children help the men. The pickers walk 
between the rows and pick the mass of fibers — 
or lint, as the planters call it — from the bolls, 
and put it into sacks or bags which they carry. 
These sacks or bags are emptied into large 
baskets at the end of the rows. 

All the lint must be taken from the boll. 
Slow pickers may not gather more than fifty 
pounds in a day, but quick pickers will gather 
three hundred pounds. One hundred pounds 
is considered a fair day's work. The pickers 
are paid from forty cents to one dollar for each 
hundred pounds of cotton; and, since it takes 
three pounds of cotton to make a pound of 
cotton fiber after the seeds have been re- 
moved, you will see that cotton-picking is very 

5 51 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

expensive for the planter. Many attempts 
have been made to invent machines to pick it, 
but none of these have succeeded. 

Before the cotton can be spun into yam, the 
seeds must be removed from their tiny beds. 
This used to be a very difficult and ver\' ex- 
pensive process; and it required one person a 
whole day to separate a pound of cotton. In 
1792 Eli Whitney invented a machine called 
the cotton-gin, that does this work; and now 
three men with a good cotton-gin can separate 
ten thousand pounds in one day. 

The gin is arranged with sets of teeth like 
combs or saws, which pull the lint off the seed. 
These saws revolve very fast, and, as they 
turn, a set of brushes takes the lint from the 
saw teeth and a fan blows it back into a room 
prepared for it. The lint is then taken to a 
machine which makes it up into bundles called 
bales. These are shipped to the great cotton- 
markets at Galveston. New Orleans, and 
Savannah, and from there to the cotton-mills. 
In the chapter on the New England upland we 
have already told you how the cotton is spun 
into thread and woven into cloth. 

The cotton seeds were once wasted, but now 

52 



THE COASTAL PLAINS 

they are saved and used for many purposes. 
They are heated and ground and the oil is 
pressed out. Then they are pressed into cakes 
to be used as a food for animals and as a 
fertilizer for the land. The cotton-seed oil is 
burned in miners' lamps, made into soap, and 
used in the place of olive-oil in cooking. 

Some of the States of the coastal plains, and 
particularly Louisiana, have many persons 
engaged in growing sugar-cane. The sugar- 
cane is a plant that looks somewhat like corn- 
stalks. The plants grow from three to six 
feet high, and in very rich soil they sometimes 
reach a height of ten feet. 

Sugar-cane must have rich, warm, moist 
lands; and large areas of such lands are found 
in the Gulf coastal plains. The fields must be 
prepared very carefully for planting. They 
must be drained by plenty of ditches. The 
soil must be thoroughly plowed and harrowed 
to make it loose and fine. The cane is planted 
in rows five or six feet apart. The plowing 
and harrowing are done in such a way that 
when the field is ready the earth is heaped up 
in long ridges or beds. The hollows between 
the beds aid in the drainage of the land. 

53 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

Sugar-cane is grown from cuttings taken 
from the plant itself. The sugar-cane, like 
the corn-stalk, is divided in joints ; and at each 
joint there is a bud. These buds are put in the 
ground, and later transplanted for the new 
crop. The flowers rise from the stocks in 
tufts or plumes, and they are pink or lilac in 
color. In five or six months after the plants 
have blossomed, the golden- yellow cane stocks 
are ready to be cut. 

The cutting is done by hand, and it is very 
hard work. The leaves and tops are cut off; 
and then the cane stocks are cut as near the 
ground as possible. The canes are thrown 
into heaps, after which they are loaded upon 
wagons and taken to the mills. On large 
plantations, tracks are laid to the fields and 
cars are used to haul the cane. 

At the mills the cane is crushed between iron 
rollers. The juice flows out and is collected in 
large vessels. It is then boiled, skimmed, and 
strained, and allowed to run in broad shallow 
pans called coolers. Here it begins to granu- 
late — that is, collect into small grains or 
particles. It is then put into sieves, and the 
fluid part that will not granulate drains off. 

54 



THE COASTAL PLAINS 

The crystals that remain in the sieves form 
raw or brown sugar, and the liquid that is 
drawn off is sold as molasses. 

The white sugar that you eat is called re- 
fined sugar. Raw or brown sugar is remelted 
and mixed with other substances, thus remov- 
ing all the impurities. Then it is poured into 
molds and sold as loaf-sugar. When the loaf- 
sugar is broken into small pieces, it is called 
lump-sugar; and when ground it is called 
granulated or powdered sugar. You prob- 
ably know all these different forms of refined 
sugar. The drainings that come in refining 
sugar are sold as syrups. 

Sugar is also made from a number of other 
plants. You may know that if a certain kind 
of maple-tree is tapped in the spring by boring 
through the bark into the wood, a sap flows 
out. If this sap is boiled and cooled it makes 
delicious maple sugar. But sugar-maple trees 
are not very abundant; and we must look to 
other plants to furnish a large part of the 
sugar that we eat. 

The people of our country consume great 
quantities of sugar. The average each year 
for every man, woman, and child in the United 

55 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

States is eighty-one pounds. That may be as 
much as you weigh. It takes nearly all of our 
great cotton crop to pay our enormous sugar 
bill. 

Because the areas for the growing of sugar- 
cane are limited and so much sugar is con- 
sumed, it is now made from the juice that is 
squeezed from beets. Germany, Austria, Bo- 
hemia, France, and other countries of Europe 
have for many years grown beets for sugar; 
and within twenty-five years the people of our 
country have found that sugar-beets may be 
grown in the United States. 

Most sugar-beets are grown in Colorado, 
California, and Michigan; although consider- 
able quantities are being grown in Utah, Idaho, 
and Wisconsin. In the lesson on the Western 
plains you will learn something about irriga- 
tion. Now sugar-beets are best grown where 
the water-supply is under the control of the 
farmer — that is, where the land is irrigated; 
for it has been found that heavy rain, after the 
beets have ripened, spoils them for the purpose 
of making sugar. 

The ground must be carefully prepared by 
deep plowing and fertilizing, if the soil is not 

S6 



THE COASTAL PLAINS 

rich. The seeds are planted in rows, and 
when they have grown a few inches high they 
are thinned, much as we have told you cot- 
ton-plants are thinned. The plants require a 
great deal of cultivation, such as hoeing and 
weeding. 

When the plants are grown, they are dug 
with a beet-lifter, the tops removed, and taken 
to the factory. Here they are washed and cut 
into fine slices. The juice is soaked out of 
them and boiled, and the raw sugar is refined 
in exactly the same way as the cane-sugar. 

Some Points to Remember 

1. The low, flat lands along the Atlantic 
Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico are called 
coastal plains. 

2. They have a moderate climate, abundant 
rainfall, and deep soil that is generally rich. 

3. Parts of North and South Carolina, 
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas, 
and all of Florida and Louisiana are in the 
coastal plains. 

4. The chief industries of the coastal plains 
are the growing of the cotton-plant and 
sugar-cane. 

57 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

5. Sea-island cotton is grown on the lowest 
parts of the coastal plain and upland cotton 
on the Piedmont belt. 

6. Cotton-plants grow from seeds and the 
fiber or lint from which cloth is made is 
a downy white substance that is wrapped 
about the seeds. 

7. The separation of the lint from the seed is 
done by a machine called the cotton-gin. 

8. Sugar-cane is grown chiefly on the moist 
lands of the Gulf coastal plain. 

9. From the juice of the stalks we get sugar 
and molasses. 



v.— THE CENTRAL LOWLANDS 

BREAD BELT OF OUR COUNTRY! WHEAT 
AND CORN 

pROM the lower slopes of the Allegheny 
^ plateau on the east, to the Rocky Moun- 
tain highland on the west — a distance of 
nearly a thousand miles — are the central low- 
lands of our country. The land is very low; 
it is level or rolling, and it is broken by few 
elevations. This part of the United States is 
sometimes called the Middle West. 

The central lowlands are drained by the 
Mississippi River and the numerous tributaries 
that take their rise in the Appalachian and the 
Rocky Mountain highlands. There are two 
main divisions — the prairies in the East and 
the Western plains, which form the foot-hills 
of the Rocky Mountain highland, in the West. 

In this lesson you are to read about the great 
bread belt of the prairies, and in a later lesson 

59 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

you will learn something about the grazing of 
cattle and sheep on the Western plains. The 
prairie lands were formerly great treeless grass 
plains ; but to-day they contain the most valu- 
able farm lands in our country. The soil is 
level and deep and rich. The winters are cold 
and dry, but the summers are warm and moist ; 
and the rainfall is abundant. These facts tell 
you why the prairies produce vast quantities 
of wheat and corn and other food grains. 

If you have read stories of Colonial days, 
you must have noticed how often com bread 
and rye bread are mentioned, but how seldom 
wheat bread. You may also have read the 
story of the life of Benjamin Franklin, and 
recall how surprised he was when he moved 
from Boston to find he could buy three loaves 
of wheat bread for a sixpence. Wheat was 
then grown near Philadelphia; but in New 
England it was so expensive that it could only 
be used for pies, cakes, and biscuits. 

The climate of New England and eastern 
New York was too cold for the growth of 
wheat. In the Piedmont belt and the upland 
regions of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, 
and North Carolina, however, it did fairly well« 

60 



THE CENTRAL LOWLANDS 

But there was no cheap way to carry it from 
place to place. This tells you why our bread 
supply depends upon the structural geography 
of our country — that is, upon the soil, the 
heat, and the moisture. All the grains we eat 
have their own notions of what they must 
have in order to grow. But wheat is more 
particular than all the others. 

We did not have enough wheat bread in this 
country until the prairie States of the Missis- 
sippi Valley were settled, its vast stretches of 
rich, level land plowed, machines for handling 
the wheat invented, and railroads built to 
carry the grain to the markets where it was 
needed. But to-day the United States leads 
the world in the production of wheat. 

The great wheat States— sometimes called 
the bread belt — of our country are in the low 
central plains of the upper Mississippi Valley; 
and the States that lead are Minnesota, North 
Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dako- 
ta, although considerable quantities are grown 
in the narrow valleys of the Pacific coast, in 
Washington and California. 

Two kinds of wheat are grown in our coun- 
try — winter wheat and spring wheat. The 

6i 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

winter wheat is sowed in the autumn ; it Uves 
through the winter and matures the next 
summer. The spring wheat is planted in the 
springtime and is harvested the same season. 
In general, spring wheat is grown in the 
northern part of the central lowlands and the 
winter wheat in the southern part. 

There are three steps in the wheat industry 
— the sowing, the harvesting, and the market- 
ing; and when we tell you that the States of 
the Mississippi Valley produce five hundred 
million bushels of wheat every year, you will 
agree that very many people must be engaged 
in the three branches of this industry. 

The wheat- farms, as a rule, are very large, 
and the plowing of the fields requires hard 
labor. Much of the plowing is done with four 
horses or mules hitched to a gang-plow that 
turns two furrows at each trip. But on some 
of the largest wheat-farms they use steam and 
electrical plows that turn a dozen furrows at 
once. After the ground has been plowed and 
harrowed, the seed is sown in rows by a ma- 
chine called a drill. 

Wheat does not have to .be cultivated like 
cotton, com, and sugar. After the seed has 

62 




PACKING FLOUR 



THE CENTRAL LOWLANDS 

been sown it requires no further care until it 
is ripe for harvesting. It must be cut at just 
the right time. On the great wheat-farms of 
the central plains, most of the harvesting is 
done by machinery. The harvester is a ma- 
chine that is drawn by twenty or thirty horses, 
or it may be drawn by an engine. It cuts a 
swath twenty-five feet wide and threshes the 
grain as it goes along. 

The story of taking the wheat to market is 
a long one, and we cannot tell it all in this 
lesson. Of course it is first drawn to the near- 
est railroad station in wagons. Here it is 
stored in large buildings called elevators. It 
it next taken to some central wheat-market 
and stored in still larger elevators. 

Much of the wheat is ground into flour at 
convenient cities in the central lowlands, and 
then shipped to points in the eastern part of 
our country or to Europe. The flour-mills at 
Minneapolis are among the largest in the 
world. This city is near the wheat-fields and 
it has excellent railway connections with other 
parts of the country. It is also not very 
distant from the Great Lakes, which are 
excellent waterways for the transportation of 

63 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

the flour. There are also large flour-mills at 
Chicago, St. Louis, and Toledo. 

After wheat our great food cereal, as grains 
are called, is corn. It is also called maize. It 
was the chief food cereal of the American 
Indians, who were the original inhabitants of 
this country. And Indian com or maize 
was unknown in Europe before the dis- 
covery of America by Christopher Colum- 
bus. 

Com can be grown in most parts of our 
country, but it does not thrive equally well in 
all the States. It needs rich soil, plenty of 
water, sunny days, and warm nights; and it 
must have a long season between frosts. A 
late frost in the spring will kill the young 
plants, and an early frost in the autumn will 
injure the golden ears. 

Now all these conditions are found in the 
prairie States of the Mississippi Valley. This 
tells you that in this part of our country the 
soil is fertile, the rainfall is plentiful, and the 
nights are warm. The com belt includes the 
States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Mis- 
souri. Kansas, and Nebraska. Texas also 
produces a large com crop. You can easily 

64 



THE CENTRAL LOWLANDS 

find the States of the corn belt on a map of the 
United States, 

Com requires a great deal of labor. On the 
large corn-farms gang-plows are used. The 
seed is planted with machines in straight rows 
and the right distance apart. For com must 
be cultivated. The soil must be kept loose 
and the weeds must be removed as often as 
they reappear. 

Formerly the com was cut by hand; but 
machines have been invented that cut the 
stalks and bind them into bundles. Another 
machines takes the husks from the ears; and 
still another shells and measures the corn. 

Com is used as food for animals and people 
and in the manufacture of starch and whis- 
key. Much of the corn is used near where it is 
grown for fattening hogs and cattle. In a 
later lesson on the Westem plains you will 
read about the great herds of cattle that are 
raised for meat. For some time before they 
are sent to the markets they are fed on com. 

You probably know many of the food uses 
of com for people, for you have doubtless 
eaten corn-cakes, johnny-cakes, mush, samp, 
and hominy; and you may have popped corn 

65 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

before an open fire. Many of the breakfast 
foods that we eat are made from corn. Corn- 
cakes, johnny-cakes, and mush are made of 
ground corn. In hominy the hull is removed 
and the kernel is cooked by steam and dried. 
Samp is corn broken very coarsely. It was in 
this form that the American Indians ate the 
com, because they had no way of grinding it 
fine. 

An alcoholic drink is made of fermented 
com; and as we have already said, cornstarch 
is a com product. The husks and stalks of 
com are fed to cattle and made into mat- 
tresses and couches. Paper and coarse bags 
may also be made from the leaves and stalks. 
Thus 3^ou see that a very great variety of 
uses are made of Indian com, and you can 
understand why it is sometimes called the 
king of grains. 

Some Points to Remember 

1. Between the Appalaehian and the Rocky 
Mountain highlands is a broad, low, level 
stretch of country called the central lowlands. 

2. The lowlands are drained by the Missis- 
sippi River and its branches. 

66 



THE CENTRAL LOWLANDS 

3. In the eastern and central parts of the 
central lowlands are the prairies; in the 
western part are the Western plains. 

4. The prairies are level or rolling; the soil is 
rich and deep; the summers are warm and 
moist. 

5. The finest farm lands in our country are 
found in the prairies. 

6.. They have sometimes been called the 
"bread belt" of the United States, because 
most of our food cereals are grown here. 
6 



VL— THE GREAT LAKES 

HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE 

nPHE Great Lakes fill a hollow between the 
^ Appalachian highland and the central low- 
lands. They are not so high as the high- 
land, but they are higher than the surrounding 
prairies and plains. The divide between the 
lakes and the plains on the south and west is 
low at most places. 

The Great Lakes are five in number — Su- 
perior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario — 
and they are very large and very deep. To- 
gether they cover more square miles than the 
States of the New England upland. This vast 
area of water is supplied mostly by the rains 
that fall on the surface of the lakes, since the 
streams from their short slopes are few in num- 
ber. 

If you try to draw a map of the United 
States, you will notice that the western half of 

68 



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70 
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z 




THE GREAT LAKES 

the boundary between our country and Cana- 
da is a straight hue and that it is easy to draw. 
But the eastern half is crooked and is hard to 
draw because it passes through the middle of 
the Great Lakes and for some distance along 
the St. Lawrence River, However, the Great 
Lakes are so useful to our people that you 
will be willing to have trouble with your map 
when you learn more about them. 

The largest and highest of the group is 
Lake Superior. It is farther north and far- 
ther west and larger than the others. Its 
waters flow a distance of sixty miles east 
through the St. Mary's River and empty into 
Lake Huron. There are rapids in the river, 
and these rapids prevent steamers from going 
from Lake Huron to Lake Superior. There- 
fore canals have been built around the rapids. 
If you do not know what a canal is, ask some 
one to explain it to you. 

South of Lake Superior is another lake 
nearly as large. It is Lake Michigan. It 
also empties its waters into Lake Huron 
through a broad channel known as the Straits 
of Mackinac. 

Lake Huron lies east of Lake Michigan. Its 

69 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

waters flow through the St. Clair River, the 
St. Clair Lake, and the Detroit River to Lake 
. Erie. There are no rapids in these streams, so 
that steamships pass easily through them. 

From Lake Erie the waters are carried to 
Lake Ontario through the Niagara River. But 
as Lake Ontario is three hundred feet lower 
than Lake Erie, and the Niagara River is only 
twenty-nine miles long, there is considerable 
slope between the two lakes. At one place in 
the river are Niagara Falls and at another a 
series of rapids where the waters move with 
great swiftness. In order that steamers may 
pass from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, a canal 
has been built by the Canadian government 
around the Falls and the rapids. 

You have certainly heard of Niagara Falls, 
for it is one of the most beautiful cataracts in 
the world. A great volume of water falls a 
distance of one hundred and sixty feet. There 
are other cataracts in our country where the 
water falls a greater distance than at Niagara, 
but there is no other waterfall in the world 
where the width is so great and where the 
water is so abundant. It is these features that 
make Niagara Falls one of the most beautiful 

70 



THE GREAT LAKES 

natural sights in the world. Some portions of 
the water are now being used to develop 
electrical power, and this power is taken to 
Buffalo and other cities, where it is used to 
light the streets and run factories and trolley- 
cars. 

In the eastern part of Lake Ontario are the 
beautiful Thousand Islands with the water 
threading its way among them until it unites 
in one mighty stream to carry the waters of 
the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. This 
stream is the St. Lawrence River, which is 
the great highway for Canadian trade, as well 
as some of the trade of our own country. 

The Great Lakes influence the climate of a 
large part of our country and Canada. You 
may know that large bodies of water do not 
get warm or cool off as rapidly as the land. 
When the waters of the Great Lakes have 
become warmed during the long summer 
months, they remain warm into the late 
autumn. The air over the lakes mixes with 
the cooler air over the land and makes it 
warmer, so that the early frosts are kept off. 
For this reason there are large vineyards and 
peach-orchards near the Great Lakes in north- 

71 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

ern Ohio, southern Michigan, and western 
New York, Such fruits could not be raised in 
these sections if the chmate were not modified 
by the waters of the Great Lakes. 

When you come to study the history of the 
United States, you will find that the Great 
Lakes have influenced very greatly the de- 
velopment and the settlement of our country. 
The story of the French explorer La Salle is 
one that you are certain to find full of interest. 
In the early days when very little was known 
about the geography of America he attempted 
to build up a great fur trade with the Indians 
of the Mississippi Valley; and to get his furs 
to the Atlantic coast and then to Europe, he 
built the first large ship that ever sailed on the 
Great Lakes. 

Before the time of La Salle the Indians had 
sailed over the Great Lakes by means of small 
boats, called canoes, which they had formed 
from the trunks of trees. La Salle and his 
Frenchmen carried a few tools to a place 
where the city of Buffalo now stands, and 
with great difficulty they built what in those 
days was considered a very big ship. They 
called it the Griffin. The Indians had never 

72 



THE GREAT LAKES 

seen anything like it, and they decided that 
La Salle must be a very great and a very 
powerful man. 

With the Griffln the Frenchmen sailed over 
the waters of Lake Erie, through the Detroit 
River and Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair 
River to Lake Huron, and over its waters 
and through the Straits of Mackinac to Lake 
Michigan, and along the western shores of 
Lake Michigan to a sheltered spot that is now 
called Green Bay. This was the beginning of 
the navigation of the Great Lakes. It took 
La Salle and his men several weeks to make 
this trip. You could make the same trip to- 
day in one of the big lake steamers in several 
days. 

Since the days of La Salle and the Griffin 
many men in oiir own country and in Canada 
have used the Great Lakes as waterways for 
commerce. With the St. Lawrence River 
they form a convenient and cheap route be- 
tween the central and western parts of Ameri- 
ca and the Atlantic Ocean. Since there are 
no high hills to separate the lake basin region 
from the prairies and plains of the Mississippi 
Valley, quantities of wheat and flour and com 

73 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

and meat, as well as cattle and sheep and 
mineral products, are shipped to and from the 
different lake ports and to Europe. Fully 
three thousand large steamers are now regu- 
larly engaged in the lake trade. 

More than half of the freight carried on the 
Great Lakes is iron ore. You have already 
read that there are rich iron-mines on the 
shores of Lake Superior. The ore is loaded on 
boats at Duluth, Superior, and other places, 
and taken to Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo, and 
other ports on the sliores of Lake Erie, where 
much of it is reshipped to Pittsburg and other 
iron-manufacturing centers in the Allegheny 
plateau. 

Besides iron ore, the other freight shipments 
on the Great Lakes are pig-iron, copper, salt, 
logs, lumber, flour, and grain. These products 
are shipped fn^m the western to the eastern 
ports of the lakes. The main article sent west 
is soft coal. Since there are so many boats to 
go back, and they all want to take something, 
they carry the soft coal at a very low rate. 

Because of the cheap freight rates many 
great industrial cities have grown up on the 
shores of the Great L'lkes, such as Chicago, 

74 



THE GREAT LAKES 

Toledo, Cleveland, and Buffalo. Thousands 
of boats unload at these lake ports every year ; 
and since the lakes are frozen over during the 
winter, the wharves of these places are very 
busy during the spring, summer, and autumn. 

The waters of the Great Lakes are clear and 
cool and fresh, and they furnish us with 
quantities of excellent fish. There are thou- 
sands of small boats engaged in the fishing 
industry; but it is dangerous business, because 
sudden storms are common on the lakes. 
Such storms rarely do harm to the large steel 
freight-steamers that carry iron and copper 
and grain and flour; but the small fishing- 
boats are often wrecked and the lives of 
many fishermen are lost every year. 

Since our government has organized a 
Weather Bureau and established signal sta- 
tions along the shores of the lakes, not nearly 
so many boats are wrecked and fewer lives 
are lost than in former years. For the govern- 
ment sends out warnings when storms ap- 
proach, and fishermen are advised not to 
leave the ports. If the men are already on the 
lake, there is a system of signals by which 
the fishermen are informed of the danger. 

75 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

Thus the Weather Bureau with its signal 
service is saving many lives and much prop- 
erty for the people who make their living by 
fishing in the Great Lakes. 

Perhaps some day you will make a tour on 
the Great Lakes, for large and comfortable 
steamers carry millions of people over the 
lakes and to and from the different ports 
every year. These steamers are quite as fine 
and quite as comfortable as the large ocean 
greyhounds that sail from New York, Boston, 
and Philadelphia to Liverpool, Antwerp, and 
Hamburg. 

In the northern parts of Lake Superior, 
as well as on the shores of Lake Huron 
and Lake Michigan, there are many sum- 
mer resorts, with fine hotels and attractive 
cottages. These places have a cool and health- 
ful climate, and thousands of people go to 
them every summer to escape the heat and get 
rest in the fresh breezes that blow from the 
lakes. 

Some Points to Remember 

1. The Great Lakes are five in number — 
Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and On- 
tario. 

76 



THE GREAT LAKES 

2. They fill a depression between the Appala- 
chian highland and the central lowlands. 

3. They are connected by rivers and straits 
and their waters find their way to the Atlan- 
tic Ocean by the St. Lawrence River. 

4. They influence very greatly the climate of 
parts of our country. 

5. They serve as cheap highways for the 
transportation of many of our products. 

6. Their waters provide us with quantities of 
fish. 



VII.— THE WESTERN PLAINS 

GRAZING -LANDS, CATTLE AND SHEEP, AND 

DRY FARMING 

'T'HE gradual slopes that extend from the 
^ central lowland to the base of the Rocky 
Mountain highland are called the Western 
plains. They are crossed by many broad and 
shallow streams, but the rainfall is less than 
twenty inches a year; therefore they are 
slightly cultivated. They furnish excellent 
grazing-lands for cattle and sheep; and in 
recent years dry farming has been introduced 
in some parts of this section of our coun- 
try. 

The story of the life on the Western plains 
is the story of grazing and of the cowboys. 
These plains, as you have already learned, are 
the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains. Fifty 
years ago very little was known about this 
section of our country, beyond the fact that it 

78 



THE WESTERN PLAINS 

was a great desert and that it was inhabited 
by Indians and buffaloes. 

If it were possible for you to travel all over 
the great Western plains, when you came 
back you would probably tell your school- 
mates about the people you had seen and what 
they produced in these semi-arid regions. 
You would tell them that you had seen people 
who were engaged in raising cattle and sheep ; 
others who worked small farms along the 
streams that flow from the Rocky Mountain 
highland; others who raise crops that are 
wholly or partly watered by ditches, and still 
others who were engaged in what is called dry 
farming. 

If you happened to know how cattle are 
cared for in the eastern part of our country, 
you must have thought the way they did it on 
the Western plains very queer. In the east- 
ern United States cattle are kept in fields 
with fences around them and brooks flowing 
through. The cows are brought to the barn at 
night and in the morning to be milked. In 
the winter they are kept in barns and sheds 
and fed hay and grain. 

On the Western plains cattle-grazing is a 

79 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

very different thing. All over this section, 
after the very slight rainfall in the springtime, 
buffalo or bunch grass grows wild in spots and 
patches. The hot gun dries the grass and it 
makes excellent food for the cattle. Countless 
herds of bison, or buffalo > lived on this grass 
for nobody knows how many centuries. About 
fifty years ago white men discovered that 
cattle could live on this grass if the buffaloes 
and the Indians were out of the way. The 
buffaloes were gradually killed, the Indians 
were forced to occupy lands farther west, and 
the cattle-raising industry of our Western 
plains began. 

The cattle are not cared for as they are in 
the East, because it is not common for snow to 
cover the ground for weeks at a time as it does 
in many other parts of our country. You see, 
snow-clouds are not carried over the Western 
plains any more than rain-clouds. Besides, 
when snow does fall, the sweeping winds from 
the north blow it from the higher places and 
uncover the grass spots for the cattle. The 
cows are not milked, for the cattle are raised 
for beef; so there is no need to drive them 

home at night. 

80 



THE WESTERN PLAINS 

You can reason out the rest of the story for 
yourself. Since the grass is so scattered that 
it takes from ten to twenty acres to keep one 
animal, you see that the cattlemen must buy 
or rent or find for free use very large tracts of 
land in order to raise many cattle. Since 
water is scarce on the Western plains, springs 
must be found or wells must be dug and wind- 
mills set to work. The cattle must be driven 
to the drinking-places and to fresh pastures. 
The distances are too far for the men to 
walk, and the wild cattle of the plains can 
run very fast, therefore the men who keep 
track of the cattle — cowboys, as they are 
called — ride horses. 

A man who goes into the cattle business 
must build a house by a spring or stream, 
where he can keep supplies, and engage a 
number of cowboys to look after his cattle. 
Nowadays nearly all the good grazing-land 
has been bought or rented by stockmen, and 
most of it has been surrounded with wire 
fence, so that each man's cattle may be kept 
on his own pastures. These pastures, or 
cattle ranches, as they are sometimes called, 
are often miles long and wide. 

8i 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

The work of the cowboys is to keep track of 
the cattle summer and winter. After snow- 
storms they must search for the animals in 
hollows and canons where they go for shelter, 
and drive them to the uplands where the winds 
have blown the snow from the grass. It 
sometimes happens that the cowboys are 
caught in blizzards and freeze to death, and 
thousands of cattle are sometimes frozen or 
they die of starvation because the grass is 
covered with sleet. 

In the spring the cowboys gather the cattle 
together to find out how many have survived 
the winter and to find how many calves have 
been bom. They are brought together again 
in the fall. These semi-yearly gatherings are 
called "round-tips"; and at the fall round-up 
the best cattle are taken from the herds to be 
sold as beef. These are driven to the near- 
est railroad stations, whence they are shipped 
to Omaha, Kansas City, Chicago, and the 
other great meat centers of our country. 
Sometimes, however, they are taken to farms 
in the com belt, where they are fattened before 
being slaughtered into beef. 

Mention has been made of the sheep in- 

82 



THE WESTERN PLAINS 

dustry of the Western plains. Sheep can 
Hve with very Httle water and they do not 
require much care. For these reasons the 
poorer parts of the grazing-lands of the plains 
and the Rocky Mountain highland are made 
to supply us with wool for our clothes and 
mutton for our tables. 

The sheep business is much like the cattle 
business, about which you have just read. 
Free land must be secured; a ranch-house of 
some kind must be provided, and men must 
be engaged to look after the sheep. But as 
the sheep are left alone much more than the 
cattle, the number of herders, as the men are 
called, is always much smaller than the num- 
ber of cowboys. Indeed, one herder may take 
care of a thousand or more sheep. His most 
faithful friend is his dog, who does much of the 
work with great skill and fidelity. 

The life of the herder is a lonely one. He is 
for weeks at a time alone with his dog and his 
sheep. He finds the best pasture that he can 
near a stream, and he must be constantly on 
the watch for such wild animals as coyotes, 
wolves, and mountain-lions that prey upon the 
young lambs. He sometimes takes with him a 
7 83 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

wagon in which to carry his food and sleep in 
at night. 

When shearing-time arrives, the sheep are 
driven to places where the wool is cut off and 
taken to the nearest railroad stations and 
shipped to the factories. Sometimes the 
.sheep are driven to the railroad stations to be 
sheared. Thus they are made to carry their 
own wool to the places from which it may be 
shipped. After they have been sheared some 
of the sheep are shipped to the great meat 
markets to be slaughtered for mutton. 

On your imaginary trip to the Western 
plains you saw many farms. Some were big 
and some were small. The people on these 
farms, or ranches, as they call them, have 
studied carefully what will grow best on land 
where they have less than twenty inches 
of rain a year. Generally they raise grain, 
potatoes, and vegetables, and they raise hay 
and alfalfa, which they sell to the cattlemen 
and the sheepmen. Often they keep small 
herds of cattle and sheep themselves. But 
the life on the ranches of the Western plains 
is lonely, for the farms are widely separated, 
and it is not easy to go to church and school. 

84 



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THE WESTERN PLAINS 

But the newest and strangest thing that you 
might have seen on your visit to the Western 
plains was what is called dry farming. As 
this was begun only a few years ago, probably 
most of your schoolmates have never heard of 
it. In semi-arid regions, where the annual 
rainfall is not more than twenty inches a year, 
grain could be raised if only the water was 
saved. 

Dry farming means that men have found a 
way to save this water so that it may be used 
for growing useful things. It is natural for 
water to find its way up to the surface of the 
soil. You know if you put one end of a towel 
in a pitcher of water and hang up the other 
end, the water will follow along the threads 
of the towel up to the top. Now in much the 
same way, if particles of soil are packed close 
enough together, the water ]:)elow will climb 
up along the soil particles to the surface and 
evaporate, or be lost in the air. 

This is just what the farmer does not want 
to happen. The problem, then, is to keep the 
water from passing ofi into the air. It was 
noticed on the Western plains, and in other 
places where it does not rain for a long time, 

85 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

that the dust gets very deep in the roads and 
that it is always damp under the dust. The 
water does not come up through the dust be- 
cause the particles are not close enough to- 
gether so they can act like the threads of the 
towel. 

What the farmer must do is to cover his 
field with a thick layer of very fine earth. 
Such layers are called mulch. The land is 
plowed very deep, and where the soil is hard 
it takes a machine plow to do this. It is 
allowed to lie until the winter's snow and the 
spring rains have soaked into it. Then the 
soil is pulverized very fine and the seeds are 
sowed deep with a drill. 

Thousands of acres in western Kansas, 
Nebraska, and Wyoming, and other States in 
our country, have already been made to yield 
crops of grain, hay, and other food plants; 
and, if our people continue to develop dry 
farming, the Western plains will soon be more 
thickly settled with homes, and the life on the 
ranches will be less lonely than in the past. 
When you come to study about Africa and Aus- 
tralia, and other countries where the rainfall is 
slight, you will learn more about dry farming. 

86 



THE WESTERN PLAINS 

Some Points to Remember 

1 . The Western plains are the gradual slopes 
between the central lowlands and the Rocky 
Mountain highland. 

2. Their lands are semi-arid because they 
get an annual rainfall of less than twenty 
inches. 

3. Bunch or buffalo grass springs up after 
the slight rainfall, and this furnishes food for 
great herds of cattle and sheep. 

4. Farm-houses are scattered, and only along 
the river bottoms has much attempt been 
made at agriculture. 

5. Some progress, however, has been made 
since the introduction of dry farming. 



VIII.— THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH- 
LAND 

MINING OF GOLD, SILVER, LEAD, AND COPPER 

TN the western part of our country is the 
^ Rocky Mountain highland. It is one of 
the largest and highest plateau sections in the 
world, and it extends the entire length of the 
North American continent. Hence, it is 
sometimes called the primary highland of 
North America, The States of Montana, 
Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, 
New Mexico, and Arizona are in this section. 
They are called the Plateau States of America, 
because they belong to this elevated plateau 
region. 

The Rocky Mountains form the eastern and 
the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains the 
western walls or borders of the highland ; and 
between the two great ranges there are numer- 
ous mountain ridges and peaks and interven- 

88 



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THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGHLAND 

ing plateaus and basins. Most of the highland 
is more than a mile above sea-level, and some 
of the peaks are nearly three miles high. The 
eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and the 
western slopes of the Sierra Nevadas are steep ; 
but the inner slopes toward the basins and 
plateaus of the highland are more gradual. 

Many of the sharp, narrow ranges of the 
highland are the upturned edges of blocks of 
the earth's crust, and here are found the rich 
deposits of gold, silver, copper, and lead. The 
high Sierra Nevada Mountains on the western 
edge take the moisture from the damp, warm 
winds that come from the Pacific Ocean. 
Hence, rainfall is very slight, and vegetation 
is scarce. 

Many parts of the Rocky Mountain highland 
get only ten inches of rain a year, and there are 
parts that have an annual rainfall of less than 
one inch. You will remember that in the New 
England upland the annual rainfall is from 
thirty-five to fifty inches ; in the prairies from 
thirty to forty inches, and in parts of the 
coastal plains from forty to sixty inches. 

In most parts of the highland agriculture 
can only be carried on by means of irrigation. 

89 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

The elevation of the Plateau States being so 
very great, the winters are cold and the snow 
is often very deep. But the rocks of the 
mountains contain quantities of rich minerals, 
and large herds of cattle and sheep are grazed 
in the mountain valleys of the highland. 

Most of the cities and towns are near the 
gold, silver, copper, and lead mines. But the 
highland is very thinly inhabited. The eight 
Plateau States contain seven times more square 
miles of area than the six States of the New 
England upland, but altogether their popula- 
tion is less than that of the small State of 
Massachusetts. 

The Rocky Mountain highland is the home 
of many of the Indians of our country. They 
live on land set aside for them by the govern- 
ment and cultivate small tracts of land, raise 
horses, cattle, and sheep, and make baskets, 
blankets, and beads. Formerly great herds of 
buffalo and other w^ld animals roamed over 
the plateaus of the highland, but they have 
largely disappeared. Only in the Yellow- 
stone National Park, where they are protected 
by the government, does one find wild animals 
in considerable number. 

90 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGHLAND 

There are three large plateaus in the part of 
the Rocky Mountain highland that is in the 
United States. They are the Colorado pla- 
teau, the Great Basin, and the Columbia 
plateau. The Colorado plateau is composed 
of high peaks and rugged ridges in Colorado 
and parts of Utah and Arizona. Three moun- 
tain peaks — Pike's Peak, the Mountain of the 
Holy Cross, and Blanco Peak — are each more 
than 14,000 feet high. Between the high 
mountain ranges of the plateau there are great 
mountain valleys called parks. Some of these 
parks are as large as the State of Massachu- 
setts. 

The Colorado River drains the plateau. It 
is formed by the junction of the Grand and the 
Green Rivers, and flows southwest to the Gulf 
of California. As it flows over the weaker and 
softer rocks of the plateau, it has worn deep 
gorges. The Grand Cafion of the Colorado 
River is the largest canon in the world. Where 
it cuts through the rim of the plateau, for a 
distance of two hundred miles, it has worn a 
channel from half a mile to a mile deep. This 
is one of the most picturesque natural sights 
in our country. 

91 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

The Great Basin is an elevated plateau 
more than a mile above sea-level. It is in- 
closed by the high Sierra Nevada Mountains 
on the west and the Wasatch Mountains on 
the east. It is less rugged than the Colorado 
plateau, and most of the country is desert in 
character. Forests are absent, except on the 
California side of the Sierra Nevada Moun- 
tains, and sage-brush and bunch-grass are the 
chief forms of vegetation. For many months 
each year the sky is without a cloud, and not 
a drop of rain falls. Many of the valleys, 
however, are broad and deep, and might be 
made into artificial lakes for purposes of 
irrigation. 

Over considerable parts of the Great Basin 
the rainfall is less than an inch a year, and the 
rivers lose themselves in the deserts and the 
lakes dry up during the summer months. 
The two principal rivers of the Great Basin are 
the Carson and the Humboldt. The Carson 
takes its rise on the eastern slope of the Sierra 
Nevada Mountains, and it has a length of one 
hundred and twenty-five miles. Its waters 
spread out in the Carson desert and evaporate. 
After flowing for nearly three hundred miles, 

92 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGHLAND 

through a treeless part of the Great Basin, the 
Humboldt River expands and forms the Hum- 
boldt Lake. These streams and lakes are not 
pure, but contain quantities of salt and other 
mineral matter. 

There is, however, one beautiful fresh-water 
lake on the western rim of the Great Basin. 
This is Lake Tahoe, the "gem of the Sierras." 
It is the highest lake in our country, being 
more than a mile above sea-level, and is sur- 
rounded by steep mountains that are covered 
with trees. It is twenty-one miles long, 
twelve miles broad, and very deep. Its water 
is pure and clear, and the lake contains trout 
and other fish. Unlike most of the other lakes 
of the Great Basin, it has an outlet. Its over- 
flow of water escapes by a rocky gorge through 
the Truckee River to Winnemucca Lake. 
Tahoe is fed by many swift streams that take 
their rise among the snow-fields of the sur- 
rounding mountain ridges and peaks. 

North of the Great Basin is the Columbia 
plateau, which is drained by the Columbia 
River and its numerous branches. Here the 
rainfall is greater than on other parts of the 
highland and rivers are more abundant. Some 

93 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

of the highest peaks in the Cascade are extinct 
volcanoes, and thousands of miles are covered 
with lava. Where the lava has decayed, an 
excellent soil has been formed. Minerals have 
been carried near the surface by streams that 
have been heated by contact with volcanic 
rocks. i\s the waters cooled near the surface, 
the mineral substances were deposited and 
veins of metals were formed. 

The highest part of the Columbia plateau is 
occupied by the Yellowstone National Park, 
a reservation set apart by the government of 
the United States for a public pleasure ground. 
With the forest reserves, the park contains 
5,500 square miles, or about the area of the 
State of Connecticut. The average altitude 
of the park is about a mile and a half. There 
are twenty-four peaks in the park more than 
two miles high. The rainfall is greater and 
streams are more numerous than in most other 
parts of the Rocky Mountain highland. Some 
deep valleys have been cut by the streams in 
the surface lava-beds. 

One of the most interesting and beautiful 
is the canon of the Yellowstone River. The 
Yellowstone enters the southeastern corner 

94 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGHLAND 

of the park and soon flows into the Yellow- 
stone Lake. Shortly after it leaves the lake 
it falls over a precipice one hundred and ten 
feet high and then through a narrow gorge of 
yellow, red, and green rocks, known as the 
Yellowstone Canon. 

The park is richly forested with black pine, 
balsam, and fir trees; and as the government 
does not allow guns carried in the park and 
wild animals killed, there are many elk, moose, 
deer, antelope, bear, beaver, and mountain- 
sheep. 

There are more than three thousand hot 
springs and geysers in the Columbia plateau; 
and the largest of these, more than seventy in 
number, are in the Y'ellowstone National Park. 
These geysers and hot springs are due to vol- 
canic heat still present under the surface of the 
lava-beds of the plateau. They spout hot 
water into the air many feet. The Old Faith- 
ful geyser spouts a column of hot water one 
hundred and twenty-five feet high every hour; 
and the Giant geyser, which is less regular, 
sends up a column two hundred feet high. 

The Rocky Mountain highland contains 
most of the gold, silver, copper, and lead mines 

95 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

in our country. As you may know, gold is 
regarded as the most beautiful and the most 
precious metal; although you have learned in 
the lesson on the Allegheny plateau that iron 
is more useful than gold or silver. But gold is 
very valuable because it is scarce and because 
it is easily worked. It is not affected by the 
air, and it is not readily eaten by the common 
acids. 

The chief uses of gold are for money, orna- 
ments, and jewelry. Pure gold is soft, and it 
must be mixed with other metads to harden it. 
Such a mixture is called an alloy. Copper is 
the chief alloy used with gold. 

Gold may also be hammered in thin leaves 
and used as a gilding for dishes, picture-frames, 
and furniture, and gold-leaf is also much used 
in the decoration and lettering of book covers. 
But the chief use of gold in all the countries of 
the world is for money. 

The United States is the largest gold-pro- 
ducing country in the world, and most of the 
gold of our country comes from the mines in 
the Rocky Mountain highland. Gold is found 
in many kinds of rocks, but chiefly in quartz. 

As the rocks tumble away by the action of rain 

96 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGHLAND 

and frost, the grains of gold that they contain 
are washed down by the streams into river- 
beds. The gold is obtained by washing the 
gravel in pans. 

More often the metal is obtained by turn- 
ing powerful streams of water against gold- 
bearing gravel banks; and the gold being 
heavier than the gravel, the latter is carried 
away. Mines where gold is thus obtained are 
called placer mines. We have already said 
that gold is heavier than gravel. As it finds 
its way to the gravel-beds,, it settles in holes 
or pockets. In placer mines, the upper layers 
of gravel are dug away and the largest lumps 
of gold — called nuggets — are found in pockets. 
A nugget of gold once found in a placer mine in 
Australia weighed two hundred and thirty- 
three pounds. 

Most of the gold in the Rocky Mountain 
highland is found in quartz or other hard 
rocks. After the gold-bearing quartz rocks 
have been mined, they are crushed and smelt- 
ed. At the stamping - mills the ores are 
crushed into a fine powder, and at the smel ting- 
mills, by the aid of mercury, the gold is sepa- 
rated from the quartz grains and other earthy 

97 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

substances. The pure gold-dust may be melt- 
ed and run into molds, forming solid masses 
called bullion. Gold-dust and bullion are 
alloyed with copper or silver and made into 
money or jewelry. 

About four-fifths of the gold of the world 
is made into money. It is made into money 
only at mints that are controlled by the 
government ; but a miner may send his gold- 
dust or bullion to a mint, where it is made 
into coin without charge. The United States 
has mints for the coining of gold into money at 
Philadelphia, New Orleans, Denver, and San 
Francisco. 

Silver, another valued metal, is found in 
great quantities in the Rocky Mountain high- 
land. The five States of Colorado, Montana, 
Utah, Nevada, and Arizona produce most of 
the silver of our country and we are. the largest 
silver-producing country in the world. Silver 
is found in more places and in greater quanti- 
ties than gold. It is never found entirely 
pure, but is mixed with gold, copper, lead, and 
mercury. About half the silver of the United 
States comes from lead ores. 

The ores are mined and crushed into powder 

98 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGHLAND 

by machines, after which mercury is mixed 
with the powder. This is heated in iron 
vessels, and the mercury and other foreign 
substances pass off as vapor and the silver is 
left in the vessel. Silver is harder than gold 
and it takes a beautiful polish, but it tarnishes 
more easily than gold. Like gold it is easily 
hammered into thin sheets and drawn into 
threads. 

Its uses are varied, but pure silver is too 
soft to wear well, and it is therefore hardened 
by mixing with copper. It is too common 
and its value changes too frequently to be 
used extensively for money. Therefore less 
than a sixth of the silver that is produced is 
used for coinage purposes. Its largest use is 
in jewelry, although it is also used in the 
manufacture of tableware, indelible inks, hair- 
dyes and medicine, and in photography. 

Mexico is the second largest silver-producing 
country. Together with the United States, it 
produces more than half the silver of the world. 
Bolivia is third; Australia and New Zealand 
are fourth, and Germany is fifth. 

Copper, one of the first metals known to 
man, is also an important mineral product of 
8 99 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

the Rocky Mountain highland. Outside of 
the Lake Superior region, where copper is 
found nearly pure, most of the copper of the 
world is found in combination with other 
mineral substance's. More than half of the 
copper of the world comes from the United 
States; and the copper-mines near Butte and 
Anaconda in Montana are our chief sources. 
Arizona, Michigan, and Utah also rank high in 
the production of copper ores. 

Copper takes a fine polish ; it is easily drawn 
into wire and hammered into sheets ; and, be- 
cause of its hardness, it is much used as an 
alloy in mixture with gold, silver, and other 
metals. It is an excellent conductor of elec- 
tricity; and, with the introduction of trolley- 
cars run by electricity, copper wire is much in 
demand. Much copper wire is also used for 
telegraph and telephone lines. 

Copper is alloyed — that is, mixed — with 
tin to make bronze and bell-metal ; with zinc 
to make brass; and with nickel and zinc 
to make German silver. Copper plates are 
widely used in roofing, covering the bottoms 
of ships, and in engraving. Copper is also 
used in the making of blue- vitriol, in the color- 

lOO 



n 
o 

"0 
M 



m 

H 

M 



o 
> 




THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGHLAND 

ing of glass, and in the dyes in printing calico. 
Many ornaments are made from copper, and 
copper sheets are cut in fine layers and used 
as a veneer in costly furniture. 

You have already been told that lead is 
found in combination with ores that yield 
gold and silver. Hence the Rocky Mountain 
highland, that ranks so high in connection 
with the production of these metals, must also 
take high rank in the production of lead. 
The principal ore of lead is galena, and Colo- 
rado ranks first in the production of this metal. 
Leadville, Pueblo, and Cripple Creek are not 
only great silver - producing cities, but also 
lead in the production of lead. 

Lead is easily melted and drawn into sheets. 
Hence it is widely used for gas-pipe and for 
plumbing purposes. It is easily soldered and 
it does not rust as readily as many other soft 
metals. Its use in the arts is great, as in the 
manufacture of paints, shot, type for print- 
ing, and cannon-balls. 

The five leading lead-producing States in 
our country are Colorado, Missouri, Idaho, 
Utah, and Montana. Spain leads in the 
production of lead, and the United States 

lOl 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

ranks second; Germany is third, and Mexico 
fourth 

Some Points to Remember 

1. The Rocky Mountain highland is one of 
the largest elevated regions in the world. It 
is a part of the primary highland of North 
America. 

2. It includes the eight Plateau States — viz., 
Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Neva- 
da, New Mexico, and Arizona. 

3. The highland is formed by two great 
mountain ranges — the Rocky Mountains and 
the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 

4. The rainfall of the highland is slight; 
agriculture is not important, but the moun- 
tains contain quantities of gold, silver, cop- 
per, and lead. 

5. The three large plateaus of the highland 
are the Colorado plateau, the Great Basin, 
and the Columbia plateau. 



IX.— THE CALIFORNIA VALLEY 

FRUIT ORCHARDS, VINEYARDS, AND FORESTS 

TF you were to go from the Atlantic to the 
* Pacific Ocean by train, say from New 
York to San Francisco, you could get a very 
good notion of the geography of the United 
States. It would take less than six days to 
make the journey by an express train; and 
during that time you would have crossed the 
narrow Atlantic coastal plain, the Piedmont 
belt, the Allegheny plateau, the prairies of the 
Mississippi Valley, the Western plains, the 
Rocky Mountain highland, and the California 
Valley. If you had kept your eyes open, you 
would probably know a great deal about the 
structure of the different sections of our coun- 
try that you have read about in this book, as 
well as something about the people and what 
they do to provide for their needs and com- 
forts. 

103 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

If you cannot make the journey by an ex- 
press train, perhaps you will make it in imag- 
ination, since you want to reach the Pacific 
coast to study the beautiful valleys of Cali- 
fornia and Oregon and Washington, and learn 
some things about the fruit orchards and the 
vineyards and the forests of the Pacific coast. 

Starting at sea-level in New York, you cross 
the low Atlantic coastal plain and the slightly 
higher Piedmont belt in New Jersey and 
eastern Pennsylvania, until you reach Harris- 
burg. Your train soon begins to climb the 
low, broken ridges of the old Appalachian 
Mountains, . and you find yourself on the 
Allegheny plateau and in the heart of the coal 
and oil fields and the center of the iron and 
steel industries about which you have already 
read. 

From Pittsburg, you descend the gradual 
slopes of the plateau to the prairies, and cross 
Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. At Omaha you 
are at the lowest point in the great central 
plains of the United States, for you are on a 
branch of the Mississippi River ; and you have 
already learned that the low plains and the 
prairies are drained by this mighty stream. 

104 



THE CALIFORNIA VALLEY 

You continue to see rolling prairies with culti- 
vated grain - fields and prosperous - looking 
farmsteads as you cross the State of Nebraska. 

At a place called Grand Island your train 
begins to climb a little. On either side of you 
are stretches of grassy plain, isolated farm- 
houses, and large droves of cattle ; and ahead 
of you in the distance a range of high, rocky 
mountains. You rightly guess that you are 
crossing the Western plains. 

Your train continues to climb, and the slope 
grows less gradual. Soon you find yourself in 
Colorado among mountain ranges and passes 
that are more than a mile and a half above 
Omaha and the cities of the prairies through 
which your train has just passed. You guess 
again, and this time that you are on the east- 
ern rim of the great Rocky Mountain highland, 
about which you read in the previous lesson. 
At Denver and Leadville you see great smoke- 
stacks that you are told belong to the mills 
where gold and silver are smelted and refined. 

You leave these cities miles behind and 
descend several thousand feet; you are still 
among high mountains — you find that you are 
a mile above the level of the sea. But that is 

105 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

still very high, probably much higher than you 
had ever been before you started on this tour 
across our country. 

You cross the States of Utah and Nevada 
through a plateau-like region that you are told 
is the Great Basin and that it was once known 
as the American Desert. At Reno in western 
Nevada your train begins to climb again, until 
you find yourself on the summit of snow- 
covered mountains that are nearly two miles 
above the level of the sea. This time you 
guess that you have reached the Sierra Nevada 
Mountains, the western rim of the great Rocky 
Mountain highland. 

From the crest of the high Sierras, your 
train descends rapidly through forests of tim- 
ber to Sacramento, and you are told that you 
have reached the California Valley, and that 
you are only ninety miles from the Pacific 
Ocean. As you have been told that the 
valley is narrow and long, and you see by the 
map that Sacramento is near the center, you 
expect to see the ocean very soon. Ahead of 
you, however, you observe a range of hills. 
This is the Coast Range that separates the 

California Valley from the Pacific coast; for 

io6 



THE CALIFORNIA VALLEY 

if this range were not here, we would speak of 
the Piedmont belt or the coastal plain of the 
Pacific coast, and not of the California Valley. 

Having reached San Francisco and seen the 
beautiful Pacific Ocean, you will linger long 
enough to study the geography of the long and 
narrow valley that is famous for its orchards 
and vineyards. 

The California Valley is a depression be- 
tween the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade 
Mountains on the east and the Coast Range 
on the west. It is six hundred and fifty miles 
long and has an average width of about forty 
miles. The northern part of the valley is 
drained by the vSacramento River, and the 
southern part by the San Joaquin River. 
The lowest part of the valley is in the middle, 
where the two rivers meet. At this point 
there is a break in the Coast Range. This 
break is at the point where the city of San 
Francisco is located, and it is called the Golden 
Gate. 

The western slopes of the Sierra Nevada and 
the Cascade Mountains are well watered. 
They are in the path of the prevailing western 
winds; and the coast ranges are not high 

107 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

enough to take their moisture as they come 
from the Pacific Ocean. Many streams, there- 
fore, take their rise on the abrupt slopes of the 
Sierras and the Cascades, and empty into the 
Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers at dif- 
ferent points in the California Valley. 

These streams have worn deep cafions into 
the sides of the steep slopes of the Sierra 
Nevada Mountains; and in spite of the fact 
that the rocks are very hard, the constant 
action of the rapid currents has dug channels 
that are hundreds and thousands of feet deep, 
through which plunge the streams that are 
fed by the perpetual snows on the upper slopes 
of the big Sierras. On the lower slopes of the 
mountains, the canons often widen into small 
valleys. Such a gorge is the famous Yosemite 
Valley. 

The valleys in the northern part of the 
Pacific coast have plenty of rain — in some 
places eighty inches a year or more; but in 
the great California Valley it is much less; 
and in the smaller valleys in southern Cali- 
fornia it is sometimes not more than ten or 
fifteen inches a year. Now crops cannot be 
grown, and therefore people and animals can- 

io8 



THE CALIFORNIA VALLEY 

not get a living, on land that receives less than 
ten inches of rain a year ; and most food plants 
cannot be grown unless there is more than 
twenty inches. 

On the Western plains, in the Rocky Moun- 
tain highland, and in parts of central and 
southern California, the rainfall is less than 
twenty inches. In the lesson on the Western 
plains we told you something of the way 
crops were raised by dry farming; and we 
mentioned that in some places crops were 
raised by means of irrigation. 

When not enough rain falls, or when it all 
comes during three or four months of the win- 
ter — as it does in California — water must be 
carried to the land. This is called irrigation. 

Land is irrigated in a number of different 
ways. One of the easiest is to dig a ditch so as 
to lead the water from a stream along the side 
of a field. Little gates are made in the sides 
of the ditch, and when they are opened the 
water runs down over the field. The trouble 
with this plan is that most streams are lower 
than the fields; so, if you made a ditch, the 
water would not run up onto the land. 

Irrigation is therefore easiest in a hilly coun- 

109 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

try, or where there is considerable slope to the 
land, as on the Western plains, in the Rocky 
Mountain highland, and on the slopes of the 
California Valley. A dam is made across a 
stream up in the hills, thus forming a reservoir 
or pond. Ditches are made from the reservoir 
down the hillsides to the different farms where 
the water is wanted. 

If a farmer in a dry country is lucky enough 
to have a spring upon a hillside, he can dig a 
pond below his spring and make ditches from 
it to any part of his farm. Sometimes wells 
are drilled and water is pumped from the 
ground, but this is very expensive. 

In most places in California irrigation is 
carried on by big companies on a large scale. 
They build great reservoirs that are really 
small lakes. They dig miles of ditches and 
build walls of stone or concrete. In this way 
water is brought from far up in the mountains 
and carried to distant places. The water 
companies charge the farmers and fruit-grow- 
ers a certain rate for water, just as in cities a 
rate is charged for the water that is used in 
homes. 

Thousands of farms have been made to grow 

I lO 



THE C ALITOR XI A VALLEY 

paying crops which would otherwise have 
remained waste land. Thousands of families 
have comfortable homes and beautiful grounds 
which would not have been possible if each 
land-owner had been obliged to bring water for 
himself. The rich orchards of oranges and 
lemons, the big groves of English walnuts and 
almonds, and the vast grape vineyards of Cali- 
fornia have all been made possible by irrigation. 
Most of the fine, large, yellow oranges that 
you buy in the market and at the fruit-stands 
are grown in California. All through the 
California Valley, and particularly in the 
southern part of the State, there are many 
orange groves; and the groves are always 
beautiful. In the late springtime the trees 
are covered with pure white flowers that are 
very fragrant and very beautiful. In the 
late summer they are loaded with great green 
apples that become golden in the late autumn 
and early winter. And even in the late win- 
ter and early springtime, before the trees have 
blossomed, an orange orchard is a handsome 
sight, for the trees are evergreen — that is, they 
are covered with green leaves throughout the 
year. 

Ill 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

The orange does best on low, fertile land that 
is free of frost and easily irrigated. The trees 
reach a height of from twenty to thirty feet. 
The orchards are kept free of all grass and 
weeds, and the moisture is supplied to the 
roots by water that is brought to the groves 
in irrigating ditches and emptied in pools at 
the base of the trees. The oranges begin to 
ripen in December, although the picking 
season continues until April, The longer the 
fruit hangs on the trees, the sweeter it gets. 
Oranges must be taken from the trees by hand. 
Men and women, and sometimes Chinamen, 
for many Chinamen live in California, cut the 
stems from the branches and place the fruit 
in sacks or cloth-lined baskets. 

The oranges are taken to packing- rooms, 
where they are first sorted and graded. After 
each orange has been wrapped in tissue-paper, 
they are put in boxes of uniform size. You 
can put only ninety-six of the largest oranges 
in one of these boxes, but it takes two hundred 
and fifty-two of the smallest fruit to fill a box 
of the same size. Most of the boxes, however, 
contain from one hundred and eighty to two 
hundred oranges. 

112 



THE CALIFORNIA VALLEY 

The first orange -trees were brought to 
America by the Mission Fathers and planted 
at San Gabriel (near Pasadena), San Diego, 
Santa Barbara, and other places where they 
established missions in California. The Valen- 
cia orange, a late Spanish variety that keeps 
well, was first grown; but to-day the large 
Washington navels, the Mediterranean sweets, 
the blood oranges, so called because of their 
dark-red juice, the mandarins, or kid-glove 
oranges, and many other kinds are grown in 
the orchards of California. 

Most of the oranges that are grown are eaten 
as fruit, but some of them are made into 
marmalade and preserves; and an oil is 
made from the blossoms that is used in 
making cologne and other perfumes. The 
orange wood is very valuable, because it is 
hard and close-grained and takes a high 
polish. 

California has nearly as many lemon as 
orange orchards. Lemons belong to the same 
family as oranges, and at a distance lemon 
orchards look much like orange orchards. 
But lemons do not require so much heat to 
ripen; they are not so perishable as oranges, 

"3 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

and they can be marketed at any season of 
the year. 

Lemons must be quite as carefully picked 
as oranges. They are sent to cool store-houses, 
where they are sorted and boxed and shipped 
to different parts of the country as they are 
needed. Besides the use that is made of them 
as a cooling drink, lemons are used in making 
various acids; and an oil is made from the 
peel that is used in medicine. 

The apricot, a fruit much like the peach, is 
also grown in California. But it is very per- 
ishable, and must be used a few days after 
it ripens. Much of the California apricot crop 
is dried; some of it is canned, and some is 
candied — that is, preserved in sugar. There 
are many other fruits in California that are 
found only in warm countries, such as figs, 
nectarines, guavas, pomegranates, and limes. 

Besides these tropical and subtropical 
fruits, there are great orchards of peaches, 
cherries, and plums in California, and apples 
and pears are grown in Oregon and Washing- 
ton. The largest and finest fruit that you see 
in the markets comes from the Pacific coast; 

and the best dried and canned fruit that you 

114 



THE CALIFORNIA VALLEY 

buy at the stores is grown and canned or 
dried in California, Washington, or Oregon. 
The large, fine prunes that you sometimes have 
for your breakfast are plums that have been 
grown and dried in California. 

Another fruit that is extensively cultivated 
in California is the olive. Like the orange and 
the lemon, the olive is an evergreen tree. The 
leaves are much like those of the willow — dull 
green above and whitish underneath. The 
flowers are small and white, and appear in 
clusters. The trees grow to be twenty or 
thirty feet high and they live for hundreds of 
years. The wood makes very valuable lum- 
ber, but the fruit is the most useful part of the 
tree. 

There are two varieties of olives — the large 

green, sometimes called the Spanish olive, 

and the small purple olive. Olives are eaten 

as a relish, and an excellent oil is made from 

the fruit. Those that are to be eaten are 

pickled in a brine of lime-water. The olives 

that are to be made into oil are pressed into a 

pulp, much as is done with apples when they are 

made into cider. The olive-oil that you may 

have eaten on your salad is simply the juice 
9 115 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

of the olive fruit. The oil is much used for 
cooking purposes, and in some parts of south- 
ern Europe the people spread it on their bread 
in the place of butter. It is also burned in 
lamps, and the best soaps are made of it. 

PVuits are not the only good things that 
California gives us. It is sometimes called 
the Italy of America because its climate and 
fruits are so much like those of Italy ; and not 
only does it produce oranges and lemons and 
other subtropical fruits as good or better than 
those grown in Italy, but it also produces 
English walnuts, almonds, and other nuts that 
we used to get entirely from Italy and the 
warm countries of southern Europe. 

The English walnut-trees are planted in 
rows like orchard fruit-trees, and they grow to 
a height of from sixty to eighty feet and have 
great, spreading branches. Like the orange 
and lemon trees, they must be irrigated. 
Walnut orchards begin to bear nuts when they 
are six or seven years old, and they continue 
bearing for many years. 

It is not very difficult to gather the nuts 
when they are ripe, and children often help the 
Chinese and Japanese workmen. In some 

ii6 



THE CALIFORNIA VALLEY 

districts in California the school-children have 
a "walnut vacation" so that they may help 
to gather the ripened nuts. After the nuts 
have been gathered they are dried and hulled 
and bleached. The bleaching gives them a 
lighter color. More than a thousand car-loads 
of English walnuts are shipped from California 
every year. 

Almonds are also grown in California. They 
do well in semi-arid sections that are well 
drained and where the climate is warm; but, 
like the oranges and the lemons and the English 
walnuts, they must be irrigated. The trees 
grow only half as tall as the English walnuts. 
They have beautiful white blossoms that 
resemble those you may have seen on peach- 
trees in the spring. 

When the nuts are ripe the hulls are re- 
moved and they are dried ready for shipment 
to the markets. California produces more 
than five thousand tons of almonds each year; 
but so many almonds are eaten in our country 
that we buy in addition nearly a million dollars' 
worth yearly from Italy and the warm coun- 
tries of the Old World. Most almonds are 
eaten as nuts, but some of them are pressed 

J17 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

for their oil, which is used in making candies 
and perfumery. 

Hundreds of thousands of acres of land in 
California are covered by vineyards. Single 
fields sometimes contain a thousand acres; 
and there is a vineyard near Los Angeles that 
contains five thousand acres. The California 
grapes are trained to grow as stubby shrubs, 
and not allowed to trail as vines. They are 
trimmed every winter, and the stumps, which 
are often ten inches thick, are allowed to reach 
a height of not more than two or three feet. 
New branches spring from the stump every 
year, upon which great clusters of grapes grow. 
A single cluster may sometimes weigh five 
pounds. Seen at a distance a California vine- 
yard looks much like an orchard of small trees. 

Grapes are grown in California for wine and 
raisins; for both purposes warmth and sun- 
shine are necessary; and the warm climate 
and the constant sunshine for many months 
during the summer have made the wine and 
raisin industries very profitable in many parts 
of the State. Wine is made by pressing the 
juice from the grape and allowing it to fer- 
ment — that is, to change from grape- juice into 

ii8 



THE CALIFORNIA VALLEY 

an alcoholic drink. When the grapes are ripe 
they are cut from the branches, loaded on 
wagons, and taken to the wineries. 

Raisins are simply dried grapes. The best 
raisins are made from white Muscatel and 
Malaga grapes. The bunches of grapes are 
cut from the branches, spread out thinly on 
trays made of laths, and left in the sun to dry. 
From time to time they are turned over, that 
all the grapes on the bunch may get the sun, 
since the bunches are very large. 

As you know, grapes contain much sweet 
juice. This sweet juice is really water and 
sugar. The warm sun takes the water from 
the grape, but it leaves behind the sugar. 
After the grapes have been cured J^y being 
exposed to the sun for a couple of weeks, they 
are taken to a dark room and allowed to 
sweat for ten days. This causes the very 
little moisture that remains in the center of 
the grapes to soften the dried outer skins and 
the stems. 

The next step is to sort and pack the raisins. 
This work is done very largely by women and 
Chinamen. The large perfect bunches are 
packed in boxes by themselves. They bring 

119 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

the highest prices. The imperfect bunches 
are packed in other boxes; and the loose 
raisins, after the stems have been removed, 
are boxed and sold for cooking purposes. 
The finest California raisins are produced near 
Fresno, in the southern portion of the San 
Joaquin Valley. 

You have already read that the steep slopes 
of the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Moun- 
tains separate the valleys of the Pacific coast 
from the Rocky Mountain highland. You 
have also learned that the western slopes of 
these mountains are well watered by the warm, 
moist winds that come from the Pacific Ocean. 
As a result, these abrupt slopes are forested 
with cone-bearing trees. 

Midway between the lowest part of the 
valley and the summit of the high Sierra 
Nevada ridges we find the sugar -pine, the 
most valued of all the pine-trees because of its 
whiteness and fine grain. It is a tall, slender 
tree, often reaching a height of two hundred 
feet and a diameter of twelve feet. 

Still higher up the slopes are found scattered 
groves of "big trees." These are the oldest 
and the largest trees found anywhere in the 

I20 



THE CALIFORNIA VALLEY 

world. The family name of the "big trees" is 
Sequoia, and they belong to the fir variety of 
trees. Some of them grow as high as three 
hundred and fifty feet and have a diameter of 
thirty feet. One of the big trees requires 
twenty-two men with finger-tips to tips to 
reach round it. In another of these trees a 
hole ten feet square has been cut, through 
which a loaded stage-coach can drive. 

On the Coast Range in California are vast 
forests of another kind of Sequoia known as the 
redwood. This is one of the most valuable 
lumber products of the Pacific coast. It is 
much more abundant than the "big trees," 
and it has the same rich, dark-red color. It 
also takes a high polish; and the absence of 
pitch and rosin enables it to resist fire. 

There are several fine valleys on the Pacific 
coast north of the California Valley. The 
Rogue, the Umpqua, and the Willamette 
valleys are in Oregon. They lie between the 
Cascade Mountains on the east and the Coast 
Range on the west. The Willamette Valley is 
the longest. It extends north and south for a 
distance of nearly two hundred miles. There 
are fine orchards and rich grain-fields in the 

121 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

Rogue and the Umpqua valleys. Some of the 
finest apples that we buy at the fruit-stands 
are grown in these valleys. 

The Willamette Valley is composed of rich, 
rolling prairie lands. The rainfall is abundant 
and the climate is moderate. Great quanti- 
ties of hops, fruit, barley, wheat, and other 
grains are produced in the valley. The hop- 
fields of the Willamette Valley are among the 
largest in the world. The hops are supported 
on poles and grow to a height of twenty feet. 
The flowers are dried for use in making beer, 
yeast, and medicine. 

The Willamette joins the Columbia River 
near Portland. In the lesson on the Rocky 
Mountain highland you learned some things 
about the Columbia plateau and the Columbia 
River. One thing that you learned was that 
thousands of miles were covered with lava — 
that is, melted rock material that had been 
thrown from volcanoes or issued from fissures 
in the surface of the plateau. We also told 
you that when the lava was decayed it made 
excellent soil. 

Now the Columbia River, as it leaves the 
higher regions of the plateau to break through 

122 



THE CALIFORNIA VALLEY 

the mountain ranges and empty its waters 
into the Pacific Ocean, has widened into a 
river valley in southern Washington. The 
Columbia is joined by numerous streams from 
the plateau that have also formed river val- 
leys. In these river valleys the lava has dis- 
integrated — that is, it has broken up into 
little pieces. Disintegrated lava makes very 
rich soil. We find, therefore, in the Columbia 
Valley, as well as in the Yakima Valley and 
other river valleys that join the Columbia, 
some of the richest farm and orchard lands 
in the world. Grain and fruit are grown in 
abundance; and the apples of Washington, 
like those of Oregon, are the finest that are 
produced in our country. 

The Puget Sound Basin is in the north- 
western part of our country, in the State of 
Washington. It is covered with a rich soil, 
and the rainfall is from sixty to seventy 
inches a year. There are many farms in the 
basin, where wheat, barley, and hay are 
grown, and many apple, plum, and peach 
orchards. Seattle and Tacoma, two great 
trade centers in the northwestern part of the 

United States, are situated on Puget Sound. 

123 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 

On the western slopes of the Cascade Moun- 
tains in Oregon and Washington there are 
great forests, similar to those found in the 
Sierras. There is plenty of rain, for the 
clouds come from the Pacific, and the moun- 
tains make them give up their moisture. The 
Cascades are much better watered than the 
Sierras. The land slopes so that it is well 
drained, and the great mountains themselves 
protect the trees from the terrible arctic 
winds that come from the northeast. 

While the trees on the slopes of the Cascade 
Mountains are not so large as the "big trees" 
on the vSlopes of the Sierras, they are so much 
larger than the trees in most other parts of the 
country that you would be pretty certain to 
call them giants. Many of the shingles, laths, 
and boards used in our country come from 
these forests. The Cascade slopes in Wash- 
ington and Oregon produce more lumber than 
any other section of our country; and Seattle 
andTacoma in Washington and Portland in Or- 
egon are the great centers for the lumber trade. 

Some Points to Remember 

I. The California Valley is a depression be- 
tween the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade 

124 



THE CALIFORNIA VALLEY 

Mountains on the east and the Coast Range 
on the west. 

2. It extends a distance of six hundred and 
fifty miles along the Pacific coast, and is 
drained by the Sacramento and San Joaquin 
rivers. 

3. There are deep canons in the slopes that 
extend from the Sierras to the California 
Valley. 

4. There are rich orchards of oranges and 
lemons, big groves of English walnuts and 
almonds, and vast grape vineyards in Cali- 
fornia. 

5. There are also fine orchards and rich 
farm lands in the river valleys of Oregon 
and Washington, 

6. On the slopes of the Sierra Nevada and 
Cascade Mountains there are great forests of 
cone-bearing trees. 



INDEX 



Africa, 86. 
Alabama, 39, 47. 
Allegheny plateau, 6, 28-46. 
American Desert, 106. 
Anaconda, 100. 
Appalachian highland, 5. 28. 
Arizona, 88, 98, 100. 
Australia, 86, 99. 
Austria, 56. 

Belgium, 20. 

Benzine, 44. 

Big trees, 1 20-1 21. 

Blanco Peak, 90. 

Blue Ridge Mountains, 28. 

Bohemia, 56. 

Bolivia, 99. 

Boots and shoes, 23-26. 

Boston, 60, 76. 

Brockton, 23. 

Buffalo, 70, 72, 74. 

Butte, 100. 

California, 56, 61, 104, no. 
California Valley, 9, 103-1 19. 
Canada, 73. 
Carpet, 22. 
Carson River, 92. 
Cascade Mountains, 88, 
Cattle industry, 80-82. 
Central lowlands, 5, 59-67. 
Central plains {see Central 

lowlands) . 
Chicago, 25, 63, 74, 82. 
China, 25. 



Cleveland, 74. 

Clinton, 22. 

Coal, 30-37. 

Coastal plains, 47-58. 

Coast Range, 106. 

Coke, 36-37. 

Colorado, 56, 88, 98, loi. 

Colorado plateau, 91-92. 

Columbia plateau, 93-95, 100, 

102. 
Columbia River, 93, 122. 
Connecticut, 11, 22. 
Copper, 99-101. 
Corn, 64-67. 
Cotton cloth, 16-20. 
Cotton plant, 48-53. 
Cripple Creek, loi. 
Cuba, 39. 

Denver, 98, 105. 
Detroit River, 70. 
Dry farming, 84-86. 
Duluth, 74. 

England, 25. 
Erie, Lake, 68. 

Fall River, 19. 
Fisheries, 26. 
Fitchburg, 22. 
Florida, 47, 49. 
France, 25, 56. 

Galveston, 52. 

Gas {see Natural gas). 



127 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 



Georgia, 47, 49. 

Germany, 25, 56, 99, loi. 

Geysers, 95. 

Giant Geyser, 95. 

Gold, 95-98. 

Grand Caiion, 91. 

Grand Island, 105. 

Granite, 15. 

Grapes, 118-119. 

Grazing, 78. 

Great Basin, 91-92, ro6. 

Great Lakes, 8, 63, 68-77. 

Great Valley, 29. 

Green Mountains, 11. 

Green River, 91. 

Gulf coastal plains, 53. 

Gulf States, 7. 

Harrisburg, 104. 
Haverhill, 23. 
Holy Cross Mountain, 90. 
Humboldt Lake, 92. 
Huron, Lake, 68. 

Idaho, 56, 88, loi. 
Illinois, 64. 
Indiana, 64. 
Indian corn {see Corn). 
Indians, 25, 80. 
Iowa, 64. 
Iron, 37-42, 74. 
Irrigation, 109-111. 

Japan, 25. 

Kansas, 61, 64, 86. 
Kansas City, 82. 
Kerosene, 44. 

LaSalle, 72. 
Lawrence, 20. 
Lead, 101-102, 
Leadville, 10 1, 105, 
Lemons, 113-114. 
Limestone, 39. 
Louisiana, 47, 53. 
Lynn, 23. 



Mackinac, Straits of, 69, 73. 
Maine, 11, 22. 
Maize (see Indian corn). 
Manchester, 20. 
Marble, 15. 
Maryland, 7, 29. 
Massachusetts, 11. 
Mexico, 99, loi. 
Michigan, 39, 56, 71, lOO. 
Michigan, Lake, 68. 
Minnesota, 39, 61. 
Mississippi, 47, 64. 
Mississippi River, 59, 
Mississippi Valley, 61, 73. 
Missouri, 10 1. 
Moccasins, 25. 
Montana, 88, 98, loi. 
Molasses, 55. 
Mount Mitchell, 29. 
Mount Washington, 12. 

Naphtha, 44. 

Natural gas, 44-46. 

Nebraska, 61, 64, 86, 

Nevada, 88, 98. 

New Bedford, 20. 

New England upland, 7, 11- 

27. 
New Hampshire, 11. 
New Jersey, 23, 60, 104. 
New Mexico, 88. 
New Orleans, 52, 98. 
New York, 7, 23, 29, 47. 

72. 
New York City, 25, 76, 103. 
New Zealand, 99. 
Niagara Falls, 69-70. 
North Carolina, 47, 60. 
North Dakota, 61. 

Ohio, 7, 29, 31, 64, 71. 
Oil {see Petroleum). 
Old Faithful Geyser, 95. 
Olives, 1 1 5-1 16. 
Omaha, 82, 104. 
Ontario, Lake, 68, 



128 



INDEX 



Oranges, 112-113. 
Oregon, 104, 114, 115, 121, 
123, 124. 

Paper, 26. 
Pasadena, 113. 
Pawtucket, 20. 
Peaches, 71, 114. 
Pennsylvania, 7, 23, 29, 31, 

39, 60, 104. 
Petroleum, 42-45. 
Philadelphia, 25, 60, 76, 98. 
Piedmont Belt, 47, 49, 60, 104. 
Pike's Peak, 90. 
Pittsburg, 42, 74, 104. 
Pittsfield, 22. 
Plateau States, 88. 
Portland, 122, 124. 
Prairies, 29, 59. 
Pueblo, 10 1. 
Puget Sound Basin, 123. 

QuiNCY, 15. 

Raisins, 119-120. 

Reno, 106. 

Rhode Island, 11, 22. 

Rochester, 25. 

Rocky Mountains, 78. 

Rocky Mountain highland, 5, 

7, 88-102. 
Rogue Valley, 122. 
Rutland, 15. 

Sacramento, 106. 

Sacramento River, 107. 

San Diego, 113. 

San Francisco, 98, 103, 107 

San Gabriel, 113. 

St. Clair Lake, 70. 

St. Lawrence River, 15, 28, 

69. 
St. Louis", 25, 63. 
St. Mary's River, 69. 
Santa Barbara, 113. 
Seattle, 123, 124. 
Sequoia, 121. 



Sheep industry, 82-84. 
Shoes (see Boots and shoes). 
Sierra Nevada Mountains, 88, 

108. 
Silver, 98-99. 
South Atlantic States, 7. 
South Carolina, 28, 47, 48. 
South Dakota, 61. 
Spain, 101. 
Sugar, 53-58. 
Superior, 74. 
Superior, Lake, 68. 
Switzerland, 20. 

Tacoma, 123, 124. 
Tahoe, Lake, 93. 
Tennessee, 39. 
Texas, 47, 49. 64- 
Thousand Islands, 71. 
Toledo, 63, 74. 
Truckee River, 93. 

Umpqua Valley, 122. 
Utah, 56, 88, 98, 100, loi. 

Venice, 48. 
Vermont, 11. 
Vineyards, 11 8-1 19. 
Virginia, 39, 60. 

Walnuts, hi, 116-117. 
Wasatch Mountains, 92. 
Washington, 61, 104, 115, 

123. 
Weather Bureau, 75. 
Westerly, 15. 
Western plams, 78-83. 
West Virginia, 7, 29, 31. 
Wheat, 59-63. 
White Mountains, 12. 
Whitney, Eli, 52. 
Willamette Valley, 122. 
Wine, 118. 

Winnemucca Lake, 93. 
Wisconsin, 56. 
Wool, 83. 



129 



OUR COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 



Woolen cloth, 20-23. 
Woonsocket, 22. 
Worcester, 22. 
Wyoming, 86, 88. 



Yakima Valley, 123. 
Yellowstone National Park, 

93-94- 
Yosemite Valley, 108. 



THE END 



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